How a group goal may reduce social matching in group performance: shifts in standards for determining a fair contribution of effort.

Full Abstract

The authors investigated whether the presence of a specific group goal would reduce social matching (i.e., matching one's own performance to the performance expected from others) by serving as an alternative standard. As predicted, when there was no specific goal, the participants matched their own performance to the performance expected from other group members. When there was a specific group goal, the women no longer engaged in social matching, although that effect did not emerge among the men. Instead, the women's mean personal performance was close to the performance level representing an equal share of the group goal. Moreover, the participants' perceptions of a fair contribution mediated the performance of the men and the women, both in the presence and in the absence of a goal.

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Author information

Author/s: van Leeuwen, Esther (E); van Knippenberg, Daan (D);

Affiliation: Department of Social and Organizational Psychology, Leiden University. EAC.van.Leeuwen@psy.vu.nl

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: The Journal of social psychology (J Soc Psychol), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Feb; vol 142 (issue 1) : pp 73-86

Dates: Created 2002/03/26; Completed 2002/09/19; Revised 2004/11/17;

PMID: 11913836, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Achievement
Adult
Analysis of Variance
Female
Goals
Humans
Male

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