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Reputation is a fundamental feature of human sociality as it sustains cooperative relationships among unrelated individuals. Research from various disciplines provides insights on how individuals form impressions of others, condition their behaviours based on the reputation of their interacting partners and spread or learn such reputations. However, past research has often neglected the socio-ecological conditions that can shape reputation systems and their effect on cooperation. Here, we outline how social environments, cultural values and institutions come to play a crucial role in how people navigate reputation systems. Moreover, we illustrate how these socio-ecological dimensions affect the interdependence underlying social interactions (e.g. potential recipients of reputational benefits, degree of dependence) and the extent to which reputation systems promote cooperation. To do so, we review the interdisciplinary literature that illustrates how reputation systems are shaped by the variation of prominent ecological features. Finally, we discuss the implications of a socio-ecological approach to the study of reputation and outline potential avenues for future research. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The language of cooperation: reputation and honest signalling’.

Adolescence is an important age of development when collective norms emerge, social exclusion often takes place, and competition for reputation is relatively intense. Negative gossip is used with increasing intentionality to interfere in these processes. At the same time, being the object of negative gossip undermines chances to obtain good reputation. This chapter reviews the role of gossiping in the formation of informal status relations of adolescents. It provides an overview of theoretical explanations and empirical findings on how reputation and gossip are related with a special focus on the school context. It presents recent methodological advancements of social network methods used for analyzing the complex interrelated dynamics of gossip, reputation, and peer relations among adolescents. As an illustration, the chapter shows that malicious gossip leads to disdain while disdain induces malicious gossip in a longitudinal analysis of Hungarian secondary school classes. Finally, it discusses the theoretical and practical implications of our illustrative analysis and formulate suggestions for future research.

Similar peers are more likely to become friends, but it remains unclear how the combination of multiple characteristics, known as multidimensional similarity, influences friendships. This study aimed to investigate whether similarity in gender (attribute) and bullying or victimization (network position) contributes to friendships. The school-level networks of friendships and victim-bully relationships in 17 Dutch elementary schools (2,130 students) were examined using multiplex longitudinal social network models (RSiena). The results showed that friendships were more likely to occur between same-gender peers and between bullies sharing their targets of victimization. Multidimensional similarity (similarities in gender as well as bullying) increased the likelihood of friendships for same-gender bullies targeting the same victims, but not for same-gender victims sharing bullies. The findings underline the importance of unraveling the interplay between different dimensions of similarity for children’s relationships and surpass unidimensional similarity based on single attributes.

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This study aims at disentangling the effects of status generalization and social identity processes on ability perceptions among early adolescents. Double standards theory predicts that people use different standards for making inferences about others' abilities based on social status. Social identity processes, however, imply that people evaluate in-group members more positively than out-group members. We analyze cross-sectional dyadic peer nomination data from 21 primary school classes in Hungary (N = 392, X age = 13 years) with exponential random graph models. Next to ethnic selfidentification, we use dyadic ethnic perceptions as a novel way of measuring ethnicity in the analysis. Our findings are mostly in line with social identity theory: Students are more likely to nominate in-group peers as clever compared with classmates from the out-group, in terms of both gender and ethnicity. Nonetheless, ethnic and gender biases in ability perceptions differ in some important ways.

This study examines the associations between four types of peerreported bullying and peer-reported victimization (mocking, physical bullying, negative gossip, cyberbullying), and students' ethnicity and academic achievement among sixth-grade Hungarian primary school students. For data analysis, multilevel regression models are used. Based on the analysis of 27 classes, it was found that students' selfdeclared ethnicity is not significantly related to bullying and victimization among students with higher socio-economic status. In some models, however, a significant interaction term between ethnicity and low socio-economic status has been found, showing that among low status students, Roma ethnicity is more strongly associated with bullying and victimization than among high status students. Furthermore, there is no sign of the acting white phenomenon among the students in the study in general and among the Roma students in particular. In contrast, students having higher grades are less likely to be nominated as victims of any form of bullying except for mocking.

The present study aims to shed light on the mechanisms of ethnic discrimination in teacher assessments in Hungarian primary schools. For this purpose, we use data collected among Roma minority and non-Roma majority students. First, we identify a considerable ethnic difference in non-blind school grades, which is beyond the ethnic difference in blind standardized test scores. Then, we derive and empirically test predictions from different theories of discrimination that might explain the ethnic difference in grades. We find that stereotype-based theories of discrimination do not explain why minority students receive lower grades than majority students. We do not exclude the possibility that taste-based discrimination exists among teachers against Roma students. A considerable part of ethnic discrimination, however, is explained by teachers’ indirectly discriminatory grading practices: Roma students’ school behaviour is evaluated more negatively by teachers than that of non-Roma students and school behaviour seems to be taken into account in grading without legitimate justification. This practice does not only disadvantage Roma students, but boys and low status students as well.