In the shifting standards model, people judge or rate others as compared to other people in the same group—that is, to others of the same race or gender, etc., as the person being judged.  The person is evaluated based on stereotypes or beliefs about the group, and therefore can be judged quite differently than a person from another group who behaves the same way. 

For example, in her article published in the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Monica Biernat describes the affects of shifting standards on male and female softball players. When the women performed as well as the men, say to hit a home run, they were praised and told they did well. However when it came down to actually choosing which players to count on to win the men were chosen to play.

Implications

The shifting standards model can also have an effect on making evaluations. That is, if there are more negative stereotype views toward one group than others, then standards used to evaluate an individual shift. Historically, this model was thought to only harm stereotypical low-status groups. However, recent research by McCabe & Brannon, suggests that the shifting standards model can be used in evaluating people from a higher status group. In a study conducted with undergraduate college students, McCabe and Brannon instructed each participant to read a paragraph with either a stereotypical black or white name, then rate the level of ambition for each individual. The unemployed subtype of the stereotypical high-power White group was rated less ambitious than the unemployed subtype of the stereotypical low-power Black group. The phenomena noticed in this experiment further supports the shifting standards model.

This model can also be applied to sex and gender differences. Fuegen and colleagues presented a study from two different universities where the subjects were instructed to review job applicants and judge their competence level for the job. (Fuegen el al. 2004).  Each applicant was either male or female, single or married and had no children or two children. Strikingly, both male and female parents were judged as less competent for the job than childless applicants. Also, gender standards were shifted in the evaluation of applicants. Male parents were judged with more leniency than childless males and women with children. This displays the notion that good performance for a male is not equivalent to what constitutes good performance for a female. (Fuegen, et al. 2004).

Hypothetical example

In the shifting standards model, we evaluate people relative to people in their group. That is, a friendly man is seen as friendly relative to other men; he might not be very friendly, compared with a friendly woman. This can cause problems when a person's relative evaluation change across contexts. For instance, a woman may be told that she is an effective sales leader (based on comparison with other women), but compared with men, her sales may not be very good. This could result in this woman not getting a raise, even though her boss told her that she was a highly effective sales leader. What the boss didn't tell her (and probably didn't realize) was that the boss' verbal evaluation of this woman was based on comparison with other women. Unfortunately, because raises at this hypothetical company are based on comparisons with both women and men, being better than other women is not enough—one has to be one of the best people overall.

A further hypothetical example involves smiling among female and male professionals. Say a male smiles three times an hour, and a woman smiles six times an hour. When the shifting standards model is applied, people see the male as friendlier and more outgoing than other men, while they see the woman as colder than other women. The shifting standards model explains how people expect to see certain behaviors and capabilities from certain groups, and their judgements are based around those expectations.