. Drawing from "precarious manhood theory," Netchaeva et al. (2015) hypothesized that when a woman occupies a superior organizational role, subordinate men experience threat which leads them to behave more assertively toward her and advocate for themselves. Male and female student participants were led to believe they were negotiating their hiring salary with a hiring manager. The researchers randomly assigned participants to either a male or a female hiring manager (though in reality all participants negotiated with a computer). The participants completed several measures, including a negotiated salary (starting at $28,500, which the participant could then counteroffer) as well as measures to assess how threatened participants felt during the negotiation. They found that male participants (compared to female participants) felt more threatened by a female hiring manager compared to a male hiring manager. As a result, males engaged in more assertive behaviors toward the female manager (they asked for a higher salary more often when the hiring manager was female than when the hiring manager was male). Heightened ratings of threat and higher salary counter offers did not occur for female participants regardless of the gender of the hiring manager.

A. Did the study establish covariance (a change in one variable led to a change in the other)? Explain. B. Did the study establish temporal precedence (a change in one variable preceded a change in the other)? Explain. C. Did the study eliminate alternative explanations? Explain. D. Is the study design causal (experimental), correlational, or quasi-experimental?