Teasing, Taunting, and the Politics of Politeness: High Sociometric Status Is Associated with Expectation-Consistent Behavior

Abstract

Research examining face-to-face status hierarchies suggests that individuals attain respect and admiration by engaging in behavior that influences others' judgments of their value to the group. Building on this research, we expected that high-status individuals would be less likely to engage in behaviors that violate group norms and expectations, relative to low-status individuals. Adolescent participants took part in an interaction in which they teased an opposite-gender friend (Study 1) or an experiment in which taunting or cheering expectations were manipulated (Study 2). Consistent with the hypothesis, high-status boys and girls engaged in teasing behaviors consistent with their gender roles, relative to their low status counterparts (Study 1). In Study 2, high-status boys engaged in more direct provocation and off-record commentary while taunting, and more affiliative behavior while cheering on their partner, relative to low-status boys. Discussion focused on how expectation-consistent actions help individuals maintain elevated status.

Habilidades sociais e comportamento social não verbal: Implicações para a aceitação e rejeição na universidade

“…Chama a atenção que nesta série uma quantidade maior de indicadores de autorrelato estiveram relacionados à aceitação social e menos comportamentos não verbais, apesar destes ainda terem apresentado os coeficientes maiores, estando mais associados à aceitação para estudar. As diferenças encontradas entre as séries tanto nos coeficientes de alguns indicadores que estiveram associados em mais de uma série, como nos tipos de variáveis associadas à aceitação social sugerem que cada grupo apresenta sua particularidade e tende a enfatizar e perceber certas características como mais aceitas Halevy, Chou, Cohen, & Livingston, 2012;Kraus et al, 2014).…”

Behavioral and Personality Predictors of Acceptance and Rejection in University

“…In fact, sex differences in the sociometric measures have not been evidenced either in the Brazilian and international literature and one of the possibilities to explain this fact is that the sociometric measure is a more global assessment of the outcomes the (verbal or non-verbal) social behavior provokes in the group. Hence, what commonly differs are the motives and justifications for choosing one or another subject in the group (Gresham & Stuart, 1992;Hayden-Thomson, Rubin, & Hymel, 1987;Kraus et al, 2014;McKown et al, 2011;Morais et al, 2001;Bernstein et al, 2010).…”

“…Rejected children are frequently considered as aggressive, disruptive, irritable, dominant, dishonest and selfish by their friends (Gresham & Stuart, 1992;Kraus et al, 2014;McKown, Gumbiner, & Johnson, 2011;Montiel et al, 2014;Morais, Otta, & Scala, 2001). Their teachers tend to characterize them as having academic problems, improper behaviors and little physical attractiveness.…”

“…Overall, different people are chosen for different activities, such as studying, going out, having sexual relations, whom to have fun with and so forth. Studies that looked into the relations between social skills and acceptance and rejection indicate that loved children possess normative and friendly strategies, while children of low status tend towards greater aggressiveness (Kraus et al, 2014;Montiel et al, 2014;Morais, Otta, & Scala, 2001). Sisto (2003) describes a higher acceptance level among colleagues for girls to the detriment of boys, and older children were characterized as more aggressive.…”

Exploring academic teasing: predictors and outcomes of teasing for making mistakes in classrooms

“…Significant correlations have been found between students' teasing behavior towards peers and a variety of context-dependent individual characteristics (Pawluk, 1989). For example, higher-status individualsseen as more popular or respected by their peershave been found to tease more often (Emerson, 1964;Keltner, Capps, Kring, Young, & Heerey, 2001;Savin-Williams, 1977;Shapiro, Baumeister, & Kessler, 1991) and more aggressively (Keltner, Young, Heerey, Oemig, & Monarch, 1998;Kraus et al, 2014) than their lower-status peers. Another study found that gender moderates the relationship between social status and teasing (Kraus et al, 2014), suggesting that higher-status boys are more likely to engage in malevolent forms of teasing than higher-status girls.…”