2021 Theses Doctoral

The Impact of Dual Stereotype Threat and Power on Negotiation Behavior and Affect

Gipson, Asha Nicole

Do gender stereotype threat and racioethnic stereotype threat combine to adversely impact American women of African descents’ likelihood to approach financial rewards in a job-negotiation context? This experimental study used a 2 (gender stereotype threat: high, low) x 2 (racioethnic stereotype threat: high, low) between-subject’s factorial design in order to investigate this question. Measures of salary expectations and affect were collected using previously validated scales. Key findings include a significant interaction between sense of power and racioethnic stereotype threat on anticipated backlash, and a main effect of sense of power on approach-avoidance, positive affect, and negative affect. Post hoc analyses show that implicit power moderates the effects of racioethnic stereotype threat on negotiation behavior, that is, having a situational sense of power mitigates the impact of being under fear of confirming a negative stereotype about a group in which you hold membership in. Implications for theory and practice are discussed along with future research directions in organizational behavior and social psychology.