On the Context Sensitivity of the Sexual Attribution Bias: A Replication and Extension to Situations of Failure

Maria Agthe,Matthias Spoerrle

doi:10.2174/1874350100902010019

Abstract

According to the Sexual Attribution Bias (SAB), young adults attribute successful outcomes of same-aged, same-sex attractive stimulus persons in a more derogative way than the success of less attractive persons, whereas this pattern reverses for the opposite sex. Based on assumptions derived from theories of social comparison, one could argue that the success of the stimulus person (which had been present in all previous SAB research) might be a necessary pre- condition for the emergence of the SAB. By contrast, we hypothesized that - given the evolutionary grounding of the glo- rifying and devaluing tendencies towards other persons - the bias will also emerge in scenarios of failure of the stimulus person. Two studies using the same stimulus persons and the same scenario tested this assumption: Study 1 replicated the SAB response pattern within a success version of the scenario and Study 2 confirmed the bias when using a failure ver- sion of the same scenario. A comparison of the effect sizes of the two studies indicated that the success of the stimulus person increased the response pattern's strength, but was not mandatory for its formation. Thus, the SAB reveals to be sensitive to, but not coercively dependent on context variables, thereby underpinning the assumption of an evolutionarily grounding of the bias.

Highlights

Social cognitive research has repeatedly documented that human judgment and rational decision making is prone to failure in a variety of ways [see e.g., 1-5]
Study 2 was conducted using a low-threat social comparison scenario to investigate whether the Sexual Attribution Bias (SAB) which was already shown regarding success attributions would generalize with regard to failure attributions
According to this bias documented by Försterling, Preikschas, and Agthe [6] young adults often attribute the success of same-aged, same-sex attractive stimulus persons in a more derogative way than the success of less attractive same-sex persons, whereas this pattern reverses for the opposite sex

Summary

Introduction

Social cognitive research has repeatedly documented that human judgment and rational decision making is prone to failure in a variety of ways [see e.g., 1-5]. Studies of achievement attributions conducted by Försterling, Preikschas, and Agthe [6] yielded a replicable effect which demonstrated that successes of attractive persons of the opposite sex are attributed in a more glorifying fashion (i.e., more to ability and less to luck) than the same outcomes of unattractive individuals of the opposite sex, whereas positive outcomes of attractive same-sex individuals are attributed in a more devaluating way (less to ability and more to luck) than unattractive same-sex individual’s successes. Försterling, Preikschas, and Agthe [6] labeled this phenomenon Sexual Attribution Bias (SAB), consisting of a derogation component regarding attractive same-sex individuals (representing the category of potential competitors), and a glorification component towards attractive opposite-sex individuals (representing the category of desirable mates). The SAB should facilitate competitive behavior with good-looking same-sex individuals as well as bonding behavior with attractive opposite-sex individuals

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Conclusion