The Psychology of Social Status

Abstract

There has never been a more exciting time to study social status and hierarchy. Over the past several decades, researchers from across the social sciences have come to recognize the importance, complexity, and ubiquity of individual differences in social rank. These scholars have made great strides in shedding light on such fascinating yet long perplexing questions as: Why are societies everywhere structured hierarchically? What function might hierarchy serve, for individuals and for groups? How do rank differences emerge, and what determines who rises to the top? What are the psychological, neural, and hormonal mechanisms that underlie status attainment? What are the consequences of high and low rank on relationships, mating, and reproductive success? Psychologists, neuroscientists, health researchers, sociologists, anthropologists, and management scientists are working together to seek answers to these questions, and to build a comprehensive and interdisciplinary science of the psychological underpinnings of social status. This volume was conceived several years ago when we were attending the annual Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP) conference, the single largest annual meeting place for social and personality psychologists. As researchers broadly interested in the psychology of social status and rank dynamics, we were naturally attracted to many symposia sessions and presentations themed around the topic of power and status. One thing we noticed, however, was that the research agenda seemed to be dominated, to a certain extent, by power—or institutionally driven rank differentials (exemplified by a boss/employee relationship)—to the neglect of research on social status and dominance—or naturally emerging hierarchical differences that arise in everyday interpersonal relationships. Further reflecting this state of affairs, an excellent volume reviewing the extant literature on power was published several years ago (Guinote and Vescio 2010), but the present volume marks the first comprehensive review of research on the psychology of status and broader rank-attainment processes.