Abstract
22 male and 22 female undergraduates were told they were interacting with either three other males or three other females. In fact, they were interacting with three pre-experimentally determined programs: one which consistently gave money to them (friendly), one which consistently took money away (punitive), and one which mirrored their own behavior (matching). Subjects could respond by giving or taking away money or by ignoring. Regardless of their own sex or the sex of the “others,” more money was given to the matching program than to the friendly program, and more to the friendly program than to the punitive program. Taking and ignoring responses were rare, except against the punitive program. There were no sex differences in response to the punitive program, failing to replicate previous findings obtained when electric shock was used as the punitive response. Two alternative explanations for this discrepant finding were offered: it could be attributed to the lack of differential societal training for the sexes in the usage of response cost procedures as forms of punishment; or, in recent years there may have occurred a gradual reduction in behavioral differences between the sexes in response to aversive events.
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