Male and female subjects evaluated the performance of either a male or female stimulus person who was heard to perform in an above-average manner on either a male-or female-related task. Analysis of the attributions made to luck versus skill in explaining the performance of the stimulus person showed that as predicted, performance by a male on a masculine task was more attributed to skill, whereas an equivalent performance by a female on the same task was seen to be more influenced by luck. Contrary to prediction, the reverse did not hold true for performance on a feminine task. Overall, males were seen to be more skillful than females. The utility of an attributional analysis in the study of perceived sex differences was discussed.Investigations of the evaluation of male and female performance in equivalent situations have tended to focus on the ratings made of the performance itself, frequently finding that the male tends to be rated more favorably than the female when the presented evidence is identical. Thus, presenting rather broadly and generally described evidence about the performance of a male or female author (Goldberg, 1968), a male or female painter (Pheterson, Kiesler, & Goldberg, 1971), and a male or female applicant for a study-abroad program (Deaux & Taynor, 1973), the cited authors have found that the male's performance tends to be rated more favorably than the female's. One apparent exception to this depressing regularity was reported by Pheterson et al. (1971) in a condition in which the label winner was attached to the evidence, in this case a painting. Under these conditions, no differences between ratings of male and female artists emerged on measures of competence and artistic future. We might tentatively assume, therefore, that specific information regarding the quality of a performance eliminates sex-linked biases in the evaluation of that performance.

To determine whether correspondence in appearance between helper and helped wiU increase the rate of helping behavior, two types (Hippie and Straight) and two sexes of experimenters approached each of the four corresponding types of subjects and asked to borrow a dime for a telephone call. As predicted, a significantly greater number of persons were willing to lend money to someone who resembled them in appearance. Furthermore, as predicted, 'his tendency to match on the basis of appearance was stronger for male subjects than for female subjects. It was hypothesized that dress styles, like race, provide a basis for assumptions about other areas of similarity and create a greater williitgness to help a similar other.'We thank Dwayne Clayton, Barbara Cross, and Jeannine King for their assistance in conducting the experiment, and Donn Byrne and Richard Heslin for their comments on a draft version of this manuscript.'Requests for reprints should be sent to Dr. Kay Deaux,

The initial hypothesis was that physically disabled help-seekers will receive more aid from normal people than will help-seekers when both types of actors display positive personal qualities, whereas the reverse outcome will occur when both display negative qualities. In the first experiment a wheelchair-bound or normal confederate was either friendly and achievement oriented (positive condition) or caustic and apathetic (negative condition) while administering verbal tasks to subjects who were later asked to help the confederate. Contrary to prediction, subjects offered more help to the normal than to the disabled tester in the positive condition, and showed the reverse pattern in the negative condition. It was conjectured that subjects in the positive condition were annoyed by the disabled person's display of "normal" characteristics, whereas in the negative condition they sympathetically accepted the disabled person's inadequacies as befitting a victim of severe misfortune. A new experiment was done, which replicated the independent variables of the first study, but substituted two new dependent variables: covert anger arousal and perception of the confederate as happy-unhappy. As expected, covert anger was greater in the wheelchair-positive condition than in the normal-positive condition, and greater in the normal-negative condition than in the wheelchair-negative condition. Regardless of the confederate's physical status, subjects perceived negative behavior as a sign of unhappiness.