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Gender‐Based Preferential Selection: Influences of Perceptions of Procedurally Unfair Advantage on Performance and Self‐Evaluations
Author(s) -
Gillespie Jennifer Z.,
Ryan Ann Marie
Publication year - 2012
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.1559-1816.2012.01016.x
Subject(s) - psychology , social psychology , perception , affect (linguistics) , selection (genetic algorithm) , affirmative action , political science , communication , artificial intelligence , neuroscience , computer science , law
Gender‐based preferential selection is believed to affect self‐perceptions of beneficiaries, but the mechanisms by which this occurs have not been fully investigated. An online experiment was conducted with male and female undergraduates ( n = 509) in the midwestern United States in which method of selection and gender type of job were manipulated. Hypotheses regarding associations between independent variables, self‐efficacy, perceptions of procedural fairness, performance, and self‐evaluations were tested. Gender‐ vs. merit‐based selection negatively affected procedural fairness; while procedural fairness perceptions related positively to post‐hire self‐evaluations, in part through performance. Job gender type interacted with applicant gender to affect pre‐hire self‐efficacy, but self‐efficacy did not moderate the relationship between procedural fairness perceptions and post‐hire performance. Implications for affirmative‐action programs are discussed.