Who Attains Status? Similarities and Differences Across Social Contexts

Abstract

Informal groups form hierarchies and allocate social status in order to coordinate action and make collective decisions. Although researchers have identified characteristics of people who tend to get status, the extent to which these characteristics are context-dependent is unclear. In two studies, participants from the United States (N = 157) and Germany (N = 95) engaged in affiliative or competitive group interactions. We investigated whether the nature of the group’s task moderated the relationship between status attainment and personality. As in previous research, we found that extraversion predicted status in both competitive and affiliative contexts. In contrast, agreeableness was only associated with status in affiliative contexts. These findings underscore the importance of examining the relationship between personality and social status in context.

When and Why Do Individuals High in Narcissistic Rivalry Attain Social Status?

“…For example, extraversion was positively associated with status in a consulting firm (which primarily encounters team-oriented tasks), whereas conscientiousness was positively associated with status in an engineering department (less team-oriented but more technical tasks; Anderson et al, 2008). Likewise, agreeableness was positively associated with status in previously unacquainted student groups after an affiliative group task but not after a competitive group task (Lawless DesJardins et al, 2017). Furthermore, research suggests that people tend to prefer dominant leaders more in threatening situations such as terrorist attacks, intergroup conflicts, or (economic) uncertainty than in nonthreatening situations because a dominant leader is seen as a tool to tackle the threat (e.g., Bøggild & Laustsen, 2016;Kakkar & Sivanathan, 2017;Laustsen & Petersen, 2017;Nevicka et al, 2013;Paunonen et al, 2006).…”

Perceiver Effects in First Impressions Reflect Generalized Stereotypes: Evidence of Consistency Across Time, Groups, and Contexts

“…Study 2 was conducted as part of a larger project on status hierarchies (Lawless DesJardins, 2016). The sample size ( n = 295) was not planned for the present research but allows the detection of moderately sized correlations ( r = .25) with very high statistical power (1 −β = .99) at a 5% alpha level.…”

“…For brevity, we focus on the study’s aspects directly relevant for the present work. A comprehensive description of all involved procedures and measures can be found in the primary publication from the larger project (Lawless DesJardins, 2016). Data and R-code are retrievable from https://osf.io/cxp3b/.…”