Sex of employee and sex of supervisor: Effect on attributions for the causality of success and failure

An industrial “employee-testing” situation was simulated in two laboratory studies to determine if differential attributions would be made for the causality of success and failure, as a function of the sex of the “supervisor” and of the “employee.” The saliency of the relative success of the performance was confirmed in both studies, as was the importance of the sexual composition of the dyad. Two surprising results were the general lack of derogation of females by themselves and others, as was generally found in prior research, and the different self-attributional patterns made in the presence and absence of a supervisor. The latter result calls into question the ipsative conception of attributions.