Fuqua School of Business, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708-0120, USA.
Psychol Sci. 2013 Aug;24(8):1420-7. doi: 10.1177/0956797612473608. Epub 2013 Jun 5.
Researchers have suggested that viewing social inequity as dominant-group privilege (rather than subordinate-group disadvantage) enhances dominant-group members' support for social policies aimed at lessening such inequity. However, because viewing inequity as dominant-group privilege can be damaging to dominant-group members' self-images, this perspective is frequently resisted. In the research reported here, we explored the circumstances that enhance the likelihood of dominant-group members' viewing inequity as privilege. Because social hierarchies have multiple vertical dimensions, individuals may have high status on one dimension but low status on another. We predicted that occupying a subordinate position on one dimension of social hierarchy could enhance perceptions of one's own privilege on a different dimension of hierarchy, but that this tendency would be diminished among individuals who felt they had achieved a particularly high level of success. Results from three studies that considered gender-based and race-based hierarchies in organizational settings supported our hypothesis.
研究人员认为，将社会不平等视为优势群体的特权（而不是弱势群体的劣势），可以增强优势群体成员对旨在减少这种不平等的社会政策的支持。然而，由于将不平等视为优势群体的特权可能会损害优势群体成员的自我形象，因此这种观点经常受到抵制。在本研究中，我们探讨了增强优势群体成员将不平等视为特权的可能性的情况。由于社会等级制度有多个垂直维度，个体在一个维度上可能地位较高，而在另一个维度上地位较低。我们预测，在社会等级制度的一个维度上处于劣势地位，可以增强对自己在另一个等级维度上特权的认知，但在那些认为自己已经取得特别高成就的个体中，这种趋势会减弱。在组织环境中考虑性别和种族等级制度的三项研究的结果支持了我们的假设。
