The Behavioral Consequences of Arbitrary Discrimination

Abstract

Summary Summary Arbitrary discrimination was manipulated by paying some subjects less for an experiment because of their sex. Other subjects were similarly deprived, but this was apparently determined "fairly" by the toss of a coin. A third group was not discriminated against at all. Half the subjects in each condition were given environmental control in the form of a choice of which task to work on. The other half were assigned their task. Compared to No Discrimination subjects, both Chance and Arbitrary Discrimination subjects evinced performance decrements on a later task. However, subjects arbitrarily discriminated against also manifested attitudinal deficits which had marked deleterious effects on volunteering of help. To some extent, environmental control ameliorated the aftereffects of discrimination. The results are in accord with the theoretical notions of Glass and Singer (7).