Looking down and ramping up: The impact of status differences on effort in intergroup contexts |
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Authors: | Nathan C. Pettit Robert B. Lount Jr. |
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Affiliation: | a Department of Management and Organizations, Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University, 301 Sage Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA b Department of Management and Human Resources, Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University, 720 Fisher Hall, Columbus, OH 43210, USA |
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Abstract: | This paper examines how the status of an out-group impacts effort in intergroup settings. The results provide evidence that people work harder when their individual performance is compared to a lower, as opposed to higher, status out-group member. Moreover, comparisons to a lower status out-group were found to elicit motivation gains as these participants worked harder than participants in the control (Studies 1-3) or in-group comparison conditions (Studies 2 and 3). In Study 4, evidence for the role of threat as an underlying mechanism was provided as gains in effort for those compared with a lower status out-group member were eliminated when participants self- or group-affirmed prior to comparison. Finally, Study 5 shows that both social identity threat and self-categorization threat underlie increases in effort for participants compared to a lower status out-group member. We detail a theoretical basis for our claim that performance comparisons with lower status out-group members are especially threatening, and discuss the implications for this research in terms of social identity and self-categorization theories as they relate to effort in intergroup contexts. |
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Keywords: | Intergroup comparisons Motivation gains Self-categorization threat Social identity threat Status |
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