Female motive to avoid success

Abstract

This study interprets female "motive to avoid success" as a normative response to social deviancy. It examines the responses of males and females to a TAT-type verbal cue regarding a female actor's success at an activity depicted as either typical for both sexes or deviant for women. When the activity is described as typical for both sexes, no sex differences in the incidence of reported "motive to avoid success" appear; reports of the "motive" are few. When the activity is described as typical for males but deviant for females, a higher percentage of men than women report negative consequences for female success.