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When Do High And Low Status Group Members Support Confrontation? The Role Of Perceived Pervasiveness Of Prejudice, Kimberly Barsamian Kahn, Manuela Barreto, Cheryl R. Kaiser, Marco Silva Rego

Psychology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This paper examines how perceived pervasiveness of prejudice differentially affects high and low status group members’ support for a low status group member who confronts. In Experiment 1 (N = 228), men and women read a text describing sexism as rare or as pervasive and subsequently indicated their support for a woman who confronted or did not confront a sexist remark. Experiment 2 (N = 324) specified the underlying process using a self-affirmation manipulation. Results show that men were more supportive of confrontation when sexism was perceived to be rare than when it was pervasive. By contrast, women tended to …