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

Michael W Kraus,John Tauer,Randall C Young,Dacher Keltner,Christopher Oveis,Maria Logli Allison

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0104737

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.

Highlights

Understanding how sociometric status hierarchies influence social behavior is important for social relationships among adults as well as adolescents, and is a vibrant area of research [1,2,3]
We argue that engaging in expectationconsistent behavior allows high-status individuals to gain and maintain their elevated social positions
Research indicates that high-status individuals maintain their elevated social positions by cultivating group perceptions of competence [6], or by engaging in actions that suggest strong commitment to the group [9]

Summary

Introduction

Understanding how sociometric status hierarchies influence social behavior is important for social relationships among adults as well as adolescents, and is a vibrant area of research [1,2,3]. Drawing from recent theoretical advances suggesting that group status is functionally based—that is, based on group judgments of the individual’s capacity to bring coherence and value to the group [1,2,3]—we test the hypothesis that individuals with high status in face-to-face social groups are more likely to engage in behavior consistent with group-based expectations, relative to their lowstatus counterparts. Recent theory and research indicate that people who are conferred elevated sociometric status by their peers tend to achieve this social position by demonstrating their value to their social group [1,2,3]. Whereas dominance-based patterns of behavior (e.g., coercion, aggression) may damage one’s reputation, and reduce respect among one’s peers [3], behaviors that demonstrate an individual’s tendency to have the goals of the group in mind lead to enhanced social status

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Conclusion