Page 80 - Discrimination at Work The Psychological and Organizational Bases

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dissimilar (Brewer & Kramer, 1985). This treatment by majority members,
in turn, will influence the cognitive reactions of the demographically dis­
similar individual, which ultimately impacts his/her work attitudes and
behaviors. RIORDAN, SCHAFFER, STEWART
For example, research has shown that members of the majority group
may hold negative stereotypes of the minority group (Devine, 1989;
Livingston & Brewer, 2002). Stereotypes can lead to self-fulfilling prophe­
cies via majority group members' expectations that the minority group
member will exhibit certain behaviors; majority group members be­
have such that they illicit expectancy confirming behavior from the tar-
get/minority member (Word, Zanna, & Cooper, 1974; Zamarripa & Krieger,
1983, p. 205). In an objective sense, the member of the minority group acts
in a way that appears to validate the original expectations, though the other
group members actively contributed to what was observed (cf. Cox, 1993).
A related phenomenon is often referred to as "stereotype-threat,"
wherein individuals behave or react according to stereotypes perceived as
relevant (contextually) to a salient ingroup. In a series of experiments, Steele
and Aronson (1995; cf. Steele, 1997) found that African American students
performed more poorly than White students on a verbal test when they
were asked to identify their race on the test form. Simply asking for race on
the test form evoked negative ingroup or self-relevant stereotypes for the
African American students. Similarly, female college students performed
poorly compared to male students on a math test when the students were
told that gender differences in scores had previously been found on the test.
Research on relational demography has not directly assessed the impact of
self- and other-stereotyping as an immediate outcome of being demograph­
ically dissimilar to one's group. This is a fruitful avenue for future research.
Future studies might also examine the nature of the networks that exist
within a group and their impact on dissimilar individuals' perceptions of
discrimination, exclusion, and so forth. Are the quality and type of net­
work relationships stronger for demographically similar members than
for demographically dissimilar members, and do these relationships (e.g.,
ingroups/outgroups) impact the work-related attitudes and behaviors of
both groups? Similarly, as noted earlier, an important principle of social
identity and self-categorization theories is that individuals will see them­
selves and similar others as comprising the "ingroup," and they will cate­
gorize dissimilar others into an "out-group." Future research should look
at whether both majority and minority group members perceive the same
ingroups/outgroups and how each relates to actual and perceived differ­
ential treatment.
Researchers may also examine the impact of the majority members'
personal comfort with diversity on the minority members' work-related