Premium
How Disadvantaged Group Members Cope With Discrimination When They Perceive That Social Support Is Available 1
Author(s) -
Ruggiero Karen M.,
Taylor Donald M.,
Lydon John E.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
journal of applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.822
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1559-1816
pISSN - 0021-9029
DOI - 10.1111/j.1559-1816.1997.tb01614.x
Subject(s) - blame , psychology , disadvantaged , social psychology , quality (philosophy) , test (biology) , social support , prejudice (legal term) , paleontology , philosophy , epistemology , political science , law , biology
This experiment examined how disadvantaged group members cope with discrimination when they perceive that social support is available. Women reacted to a failing test grade after ambiguous information about the probability for discrimination. With no social support, women minimized discrimination and attributed their failure to the quality of their answers. Participants were less inclined to minimize discrimination when social support was available. When they perceived that either emotional or informational support was available, women were equally likely to blame their failure on discrimination as on the quality of their answers. The results revealed less minimization of personal discrimination when both emotional and informational support were available, in which case participants blamed their failure more on discrimination and less on themselves.