Prejudice targets individuals whose group stereotypes clash with role requirements.

Evidence

Consistent with this analysis, variations in role requirements frame prejudices. Allport (1954/1979) recognized the contextual quality of prejudice with examples of the “curious patterns” (p. 55) of discrimination such as allowing “a Negro to work in my kitchen but not a Jew” whereas “a Jew but not a Negro may sit in my parlor” (p. 55). However, he did not provide an abstract analysis of this contextualism or recognize its generality. This generality has become fully apparent in contemporary research. For example, in a meta-analysis of Goldberg Paradigm experiments, more substantial bias was present when women were evaluated in a masculine or neutral domain rather than a feminine domain (Swim et al., 1989). Similarly, a meta-analysis of Goldberg Paradigm studies of leadership behavior showed that women are more devalued, compared with equivalent men, when occupying male-dominated roles that are presumably incongruent for women (Eagly, Makhijani, & Klonsky, 1992). Organizational research has confirmed that women who enter male-dominated work settings often receive hostile reactions (e.g., Collinson, Knights, & Collinson, 1990), which can include sexual harassment (Fitzgerald, 1993). Also, gay men are particularly at risk for prejudiced reactions in roles to which they are stereotypically mismatched – for example, military service (Segal, Gade, & Johnson, 1993). Gay men’s relatively effeminate image is incongruent with the tough, masculine role that military organizations construct for soldiers (Goldstein, 2001). — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 198

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to social role theory and the congruity model of prejudice; also resonates with any role-fit analysis in organizations literature.