THE ROLE OF CAUSAL ATTRIBUTIONS IN COMPETITIVE SITUATIONS

Previous data have shown that successful women are judged to have masc uline characteristics [J. A. Doyle (1989), The Male Experience (2nd ed .), Dubuque, LA: Wm. C. Brown; D. L. Gill (1986), Psychological Dynami cs of Sport, Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics; D. J. Murphy (1988), ''Spo rt and Gender'' in W. M. Leonard II (Ed.), A Sociological Perspective of Sport (3rd ed.), New York: Macmillan; P. Willis (1994), ''Women in Sport in Ideology,'' in S. Birrell and C. L. Cole (Eds.), Women, Sport , and Culture, Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics]. Two experiments were co nducted to test two different explanations for this effect, the apprai sal and attribution hypotheses. In Experiment 1, male participants who lost to a female confederate on a masculine-relevant task rated her a s having more masculine and fewer feminine characteristics than when t he task was described as feminine-relevant. However heart rate and blo od pressure data failed to support the appraisal hypothesis that these reactions were due to the stress of losing to the female, or defensiv eness. The alternative hypothesis that these ratings were due to stand ard attributional processes was more consistent with the data. Consequ ently, this hypothesis was tested in Experiment 2 using an attribution al paradigm. Consistent with Experiment 1, the attribution hypothesis fared better than did the appraisal hypothesis.