Abstract
Horner’s ‘women’s will to fail’ hypothesis was tested with a disjunctive reaction time task, using students from a church-related college divided into three equal groups: tested alone (F), competing against a male confederate (F-M), and competing against a female confederate (F-F). Group F reacted significantly slower than F-F (p < .01) and F-M (p < .05), and Group F-M reacted significantly slower than F-F (p <.05). The hypothesis that women in a competitive task with a male do not perform as well as when competing with another female was supported.
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Hyatt, F. A., Cooper, G. G., & Allen, J. L. Motive to avoid success in a disjunctive reaction time competition task. Unpublished manuscript, Spring Arbor College, 1970.
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The authors wish to express their appreciation to M. Ray Denny for sponsoring and taking full editorial responsibility for this article.
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Allen, J.L., Boivin, M.R. ‘Women’s will to fail’ in a disjunctive reaction time competitive task. Bull. Psychon. Soc. 8, 401–402 (1976). https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03335180
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.3758/BF03335180