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  • Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes

Going It Alone: Competition Increases the Attractiveness of Minority Status

By: Erika L. Kirgios, Edward H. Chang and Katherine L. Milkman
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Abstract

Past research demonstrates that people prefer to affiliate with others who resemble them demographically. However, we posit that when competing for scarce opportunities, strategic considerations moderate the strength of this tendency toward homophily. Across six experiments, we find that anticipated competition weakens people’s desire to join groups that include similar others. When expecting to compete against fellow group members, women are more willing to join all-male groups and Black participants are more willing to join all-White groups than in the absence of competition. We show that this effect is mediated by the belief that being distinct will lead your performance to stand out. Our findings offer a new perspective to enrich past research on homophily, shedding light on the instances when minorities are more likely to join groups in which they will be underrepresented.

Keywords

Homophily; Group Selection; Diversity; Gender; Race; Competition

Citation

Kirgios, Erika L., Edward H. Chang, and Katherine L. Milkman. "Going It Alone: Competition Increases the Attractiveness of Minority Status." Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 161 (November 2020): 20–33.
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About The Author

Edward H. Chang

Negotiation, Organizations & Markets
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More from the Authors
  • To Drive Efforts...Don't Tiptoe Around Your Legal Risk By: Edward Chang and Bonnie Levine
  • When Seeking Help, Women and Racial/Ethnic Minorities Benefit from Explicitly Stating Their Identity By: Erika L. Kirgios, Aneesh Rai, Edward H. Chang and Katherine L. Milkman
  • A 680,000-Person Megastudy of Nudges to Encourage Vaccination in Pharmacies By: Katherine L. Milkman, Linnea Gandhi, Mitesh S. Patel, Heather N. Graci, Dena M. Gromet, Hung Ho, Joseph S. Kay, Timothy W. Lee, Jake Rothschild, Jonathan E. Bogard, Ilana Brody, Christopher F. Chabris, Edward Chang, Gretchen B. Chapman, Jennifer E. Dannals, Noah J. Goldstein, Amir Goren, Hal Hershfield, Alex Hirsch, Jillian Hmurovic, Samantha Horn, Dean Karlan, Ariella S. Kristal, Cait Lamberton, Michael N. Meyer, Allison H. Oakes, Maurice E. Schweitzer, Maheen Shermohammed, Jaochim H. Talloen, Caleb Warren, Ashley Whillans, Kuldeep N. Yadav, Julian J. Zlatev, Ron Berman, Chalanda N. Evans, Rahul Ladhania, Jens Ludwig, Nina Mazar, Sendhil Mullainathan, Christopher K. Snider, Jann Spiess, Eli Tsukayama, Lyle Ungar, Christophe Van den Bulte, Kevin G. Volpp and Angela L. Duckworth
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