9401080 Ridgeway This is an award under the Grants for Improving Doctoral Dissertation Research program. It is a study of some of the social bases for the acceptance or rejection of double standards for rewarding performance of tasks. A series of social psychological experiments will be carried out using undergraduate students, with computers used to simulate partners cooperating in performing an assigned task. Through manipulation of the relative rewards given to subjects and partners and also the social status characteristics of partners, reactions of subjects to the establishment of a differential reward structure will be studied. Previous work in experimental social psychology has examined either how standards for evaluating others or individual reward expectations are established, but this will be one of the few attempts to study both processes simultaneously. Unlike some experiments, the results of this project should have direct implications for important real-life situations involving the acceptance or challenging of double standards for judging individual performance. In addition to the scientific gains to be achieved by the research, this award will materially assist a highly promising student in completing research for the Ph.D. dissertation. Thus it contributes to the future scientific manpower of the nation and the thorough training of the next generation of social scientists. ***
