The effects of race and assertiveness on active and passive influencing : a four year follow-up

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: According to Expectation States Theory the status information of race will have an effect onthe evaluation of an individual's performance, the interaction initiated, and on theacceptance or exertion of influence (passive and active influencing). Recommendationsfrom the study done by Doming (1995) motivated the replication of the previousinvestigation four years later, in order to investigate the effects of race and assertiveness on the acceptance and exertion of influence (passive and active influencing). Two hundredand eighty eight white students studying at a Historically White University in South-Africatook part as subjects conducting a computer based task with a presumed but simulatedpartner. The variable race was operationalised by means of a photograph of the presumedpartner being presented to the subject on a computer screen, and the variableassertiveness by means of items from the Personal Assertion Analysis as self-descriptionsof the simulated partner. A 3x3 experimental design was employed and variance results(AN OVA) were analysed. The findings constituted that race had a significant effect oninfluence acceptance (passive influencing) but not on influence exertion (active influencing).The variable, assertiveness, did not significantly effect influence acceptance or exertion(passive and active influencing). The white subjects accepted significantly more influencefrom black partners in 1998 than in 1994. This might indicate a change in the status value ofwhat was in the 1994 results still considered to be a low status characteristic.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University