title: Less pain and more to gain: why high-status group members blame their failure on discrimination.
abstract: Members of high-status groups are more likely than members of low-status groups to blame their failure on discrimination and are less likely to blame it on themselves. This tendency was demonstrated in 3 experiments comparing men and women, White and Black students, and members of experimentally created high- and low-status groups. Results also showed that when making an attribution to discrimination, high-status group members were less likely to experience a threat to their social state self-esteem, performance perceived control, and social perceived control and were more likely to protect their performance state self-esteem. These findings help to explain why high-status group members are more willing to blame their failure on discrimination by showing that it is less harmful for them than for low-status group members.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA. kmr@wjh.harvard.edu
authors.forename: K M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Ruggiero
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Marx
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001741:Black or African American / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011287:Prejudice; D011897:Random Allocation; D012649:Self Concept; D012923:Social Class; D044465:White People / Q000523:psychology