Psychological reports
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Psychological reports · Apr 2015
Effect of hierarchy legitimacy on low status group members' attributions for ingroup and outgroup failures.
Previous research has shown that people have a tendency to explain successes and failures in ways that favor their ingroups relative to outgroups. However, there has been a dearth of research examining whether social-contextual factors such as group status and hierarchy legitimacy moderate such intergroup attributions. ⋯ When low status was considered illegitimate, ingroup failure was attributed to external causes (task difficulty, bad luck) more so than outgroup failure. Implications and directions for future research examining consequences and mediating processes are discussed.