THINKING ABOUT ONES GENDER GROUPS PRIVILEGES OR DISADVANTAGES - CONSEQUENCES FOR WELL-BEING IN WOMEN AND MEN

Thoughts about group-based privileges or disadvantages were expected t o have different consequences for personal and group well-being, depen ding on whether the individual is a member of a high-or low-status gro up. To test this hypothesis, women and men were randomly assigned to c onsider the ways that their gender group membership has resulted in ei ther beneficial or detrimental outcomes in their lives. For men, think ing about their gender group's privileges resulted in lower scores on the group-related well-being measures compared to women, and thinking about their group's disadvantages resulted in higher personal self-est eem scores in men compared to women. It is suggested that among high-s tatus group members, thinking about privilege can evoke guilt and tain t one's group image, whereas thinking about disadvantage can augment p ersonal internal attributions for the positive outcomes received. Disc ussion focuses on the implications that the operation of two types of mechanisms-group-bas ed emotions and the undermining or augmenting of attributions-has for the responses of high-and low-status group member s when their groups are portrayed as exerting either negative or posit ive effects on their lives.