The Protestant work ethic and reactions to negative performance evaluations on a laboratory task

Abstract

Conducted 2 experiments in which male college students scoring high on the Protestant Ethic (PE) Scale performed better on repetitive, digit-copying tasks than those scoring low. In Exp I, 84 Ss told by the experimenter that they were doing well improved their performance regardless of their PE endorsement; when told that they were doing poorly, the performance of high PEs improved and low PEs declined. In Exp II, 72 Ss were told that their performance level was lower than their co-workers', but that their co-workers' superiority would bring them an unearned reward. High PE Ss performed at a high level and felt neutral about the task; low PE Ss performed poorly and liked the task, suggesting that they welcomed the unearned reward. Findings indicate that reactions to negative performance evaluations are moderated by endorsement of the Protestant work ethic. (19 ref) (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)