Organizational Psychology

Purpose. This article analyzes the connection between belief in a just world and the manifestation of compensation in building social stereotypes — attributing more competence and lesswarmth to those at the higher rungs of the social hierarchy, and more warmth and less competence to those at the lower rungs. Although compensation aims to harmonize relationships and mitigate social inequality by allowing to be perceived as more just, the connection between belief in a just world and the manifestation of compensation in perceiving inequality is not studied enough. Method. 82 physicians, 86 nurses (brothers), 84 orderlies and 83 workers in other specialties, of whom 168 were females, participated in the study, average age was 33.2. Participants completed an online questionnaire that included an assessment of stereotypes of physicians, nurses (brothers), and orderlies on three qualitiesof warmth and three qualities of competence and the Belief in a Just World questionnaire adapted from S. K. Nartova-Bochaver with colleagues. Findings. The results analysis showed a difference in the structure  of the connection between belief in a just and the manifestation of compensation depending on the position in relation to the hierarchy and the place occupied in it. The hypothesis about the manifestation of compensation in the assessment of stereotypes of medical workers was partially confirmed. Both for doctors and observers, the comparison of groups by competence in all cases corresponds to objective differences in qualification. Contrary to the hypothesis, doctors consider their group to be less warmthan competent. Nurses (brothers) consider their group, as well as the group of doctors, to be more competent than warm. In all other cases, neither in the assessment of warmth and competence with instereotypes, nor in the assessment of the ratio of warmth between groups, compensation is present among nurses (brothers). The hypothesis about the connection between belief in a just world and compensation was also partially confirmed. In intergroup comparison, belief in a just world is associated with competence among nurses (brothers) and orderlies (cabinets), who occupy a subordinate positionand probably need to explain their place due to insufficient skills. Value of the results. The obtained results allow us to speak about the asymmetry of the manifestation of compensation in relation to superior and inferior workers. In relation to inferior workers, compensation is manifested only in one case, namely: among doctors in relation to nurses. In all other cases — only in relation to superior workers.