ERIC Number: ED147657
Record Type: RIE
Publication Date: 1976
Pages: 9
Abstractor: N/A
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
A Test of an Impression Management Interpretation of Public Responses to Positive Inequity.
Rivera, Alba N.; Tedeschi, James T.
Recent evidence indicates that subjects experience "distress" when they are beneficiaries of an inequitable distribution of rewards in a dyad. Yet, reinforcement theory postulates that individuals should experience more pleasure, the greater the reward they receive. An impression management hypothesis would reconcile these apparently opposing hypotheses. Persons may manifest guilt or distress when they experience positive inequity but privately experience pleasure. In a 3x2 factorial design these hypotheses were tested. In a worker-supervisor paradigm subjects served in pairs as workers and performed equally well. The supervisor then divided $1 between the workers, giving the subject 50 cents, 75 cents, or 90 cents. Measures of subjects' mood guilt and liking for the supervisor were measured either by paper-and-pencil tests or through a bogus pipeline procedure. The A x B linear trends provided strong support for an impression management hypothesis. (Author)
Publication Type: Speeches/Meeting Papers
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: N/A
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Note: Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association (84th, Washington, D.C., September 3-7, 1976)