Effects Of Social Status Research Articles

Caught Between Ideology and Self-Interest: Subjective Social Status and Meritocratic Beliefs Shape Whether People Perceive, Feel Anger About, and Want to Change Economic Conflict.

Belief in meritocracy and social status are central to understanding how people think and behave in relation to economic conflict. In this paper, we investigate how belief in meritocracy is moderated by (subjective) social status for three different aspects of citizens' attitudes towards economic inequality and conflict, namely (1) perceived conflict, (2) anger about economic inequality and (3) intentions to change economic conflict (egalitarianism). Data from the International Social Survey Programme on 29 countries reveal that the effect of meritocracy depends on social status and differs meaningfully across the three attitudes. For people high in social status, belief in meritocracy relates to lower perceptions of conflict, anger, and egalitarianism. For people with a low subjective social status there is no or a weak relation of belief in meritocracy with the outcomes. In addition, when belief in meritocracy was low, those with a high subjective social status appeared to be concerned about inequality as they perceived more economic conflict and felt more anger than those with a low subjective social status. However, this was not the case for intentions to reduce inequality. Hence, these effects of meritocracy and social status should be understood in light of self-interest concerns of social groups, rather than solely ideological domination.

Spouses’ personalities and marital satisfaction in Chinese families

IntroductionConsidering the traditional Confucian values prevalent in Chinese society, we study the effects of the spouses’ personalities and household sociodemographic circumstances on the marital satisfaction of marriage partners.MethodsWe evaluate the factors that contribute to marital satisfaction, using the 2018 wave of the Chinese Family Panel Survey, including 6,603 households. We use information on both spouses’ Big-Five personality traits, and marital satisfaction. In addition, the effects of the household’s sociodemographic factors on the spouses’ marital satisfaction are estimated. We employ the Actor–Partner Interdependence Model to estimate the effects, using simultaneous equation modeling.ResultsWe find significant actor effects of personality, i.e., agreeableness, openness, conscientiousness, and extroversion, but few partner effects on marital satisfaction. In addition to other socioeconomic effects, we find strong actor effects of subjective social status on marital satisfaction for both spouses. The wife’s level of education had a negative effect on her marital satisfaction.DiscussionThe effects of the spouses’ personalities and sociodemographic circumstances on their marital satisfaction fit the Confucian values fostered in China. The wife’s double burden of having a job and taking care of household duties, negatively affecting her marital satisfaction, may be alleviated by proper government policies.

Convergent or not? The effect of linguistic convergence on the effectiveness of online physician-patient communication

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate whether the convergence of linguistic features between physicians and patients with chronic diseases facilitates the effectiveness of physician–patient communication in online health communities (OHCs). Drawing on communication accommodation theory (CAT), the authors develop a research model that illustrates how the convergence of semantic features (language concreteness and emotional intensity) and stylistic features (language style) influence patient satisfaction and compliance. The model also incorporates the moderating effects of the physician's social status and the patients' complications.Design/methodology/approachThe data, collected from a prominent online health platform in China, include 15,448 consultation records over five years. The logistic regression is leveraged to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe findings reveal that convergent semantic features, such as language concreteness and emotional intensity, along with stylistic features like language style, enhance patient satisfaction, which in turn leads to increased compliance. Additionally, the physician’s social status strengthens the effect of convergent emotional intensity but weakens the effect of convergent language concreteness. The physician’s social status has no significant impact on the link between convergent language style and satisfaction. Patients' complications weaken the effect of satisfaction on their compliance.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the CAT and OHC literature by enhancing the understanding of the role of linguistic convergence in the effectiveness of online physician–patient communication and provides managerial implications for physicians on how to accommodate their communicative styles toward chronic patients to improve patient satisfaction and compliance.

The influence of social status and promise levels in trust games: An Event-Related Potential (ERP) study.

Promises are widely used to increase trust in social status; yet how promise levels and social status influence trust behavior and its underlying neurophysiological mechanisms remain unclear. We used a modified trust game to investigate the effects of promise levels and social status on trust behavior. Participants, as investors paired with trustees of varying social status who were given the opportunity to promise to return different levels of money, were required to decide to whether trust the trustees. In Experiment 1, trustees promised to return high-, medium-, or low-level money to participants, and no return feedback was provided. In Experiment 2, trustees promised to return high- and low-level money to participants. Return feedback was provided and event-related potential (ERP) data were recorded. The behavioral results indicated that participants trusted high-status partners more than low-status partners, regardless of the promise level. The ERP results showed that with low-status partners, the N2 was more negative and the P3 was smaller under low-level promise conditions than under high-level promise conditions. However, with high-status partner, there were no differences in N2 and P3 between high- and low-level promise conditions. Our findings suggest that social status may affect the perception of potential risks across different promise levels in trust.

Converting smartphone interference into favorable consequences for social interactions: the “resisting phubbing” phenomenon

ABSTRACT Research has underscored the detrimental effects of phubbing. Nevertheless, attempts at identifying alternative actions are lacking. The present research introduced 'resisting phubbing', actively avoiding phubbing to continue the in-person interaction with the individuals involved. Study 1 (N = 246) employed short videos to assess the effect of inclusion, phubbing, and resisting phubbing on interpersonal connection, social exclusion, and social perception. Phubbing yielded the most adverse outcomes, followed by inclusion and resisting phubbing, which showed the most favorable. Study 2 (N = 291) additionally examined the influence of social status on these behaviors. While Study 1 results were replicated, the effect of social status remained inconclusive. Our studies emphasize the relevance of resisting phubbing as a beneficial strategy to overcome smartphone interference during in-person interactions.

Oxidative stress in the brain is regulated by social status in a highly social cichlid fish.

Social stress can increase reactive oxygen species and derail antioxidant function in the brain, which may contribute to the onset and progression of mental health disorders. In hierarchical species, repeated social defeat can raise oxidative stress in the brain. However, how oxidative balance in the brain is regulated across different levels in a social hierarchy is unknown. Here, we study the effect of social status on patterns of oxidative stress across several brain divisions in a highly social cichlid fish, Astatotilapia burtoni. In this species, dominant males are territorial, brightly colored, and reproductively active while subordinate males are not. We measured several markers of oxidative stress in macrodissected brain divisions in dominant and subordinate males. We found that dominant individuals had lower oxidative DNA damage (8-OhdG) in the midbrain while also having increased total antioxidant capacity in the midbrain and hypothalamus. However, in dominant males, oxidative DNA damage tended to be higher in the hypothalamus while total glutathione levels were lower in the telencephalon compared to subordinate males. Finally, we found that indicators of reproductive activity (gonadosomatic index and social behavior) were co-regulated with antioxidant function or oxidative damage in the telencephalon. Combined, our results suggest that social status and activation of the reproductive system regulate oxidative balance in the brain in a highly brain division specific manner.

Reduced fitness of secondary females in a polygynous species: a 32-yr study of Savannah sparrows.

The evolution of mating systems reflects a balance of the often-conflicting interests of males and females. Polygyny, a mating system in which males have multiple mates, presents a fitness benefit to males, but the consequences for females are less clear. Females with polygynous social mates may suffer reduced fitness, especially secondary females who typically receive less male support. We used 32 yr of detailed reproductive data on a population of Savannah sparrows (Passerculus sandwichensis) breeding on Kent Island, NB, Canada, to investigate the effects of females' social mating status on 6 indices of female fitness: survival, clutch size, fledging success, number of fledglings produced per nest and annually, and recruitment of offspring. Secondary females produced fewer fledglings per nest and annually than did monogamous or primary females, and their young were less likely to recruit into the breeding population. Yearling secondary females also had lower survival rates than older secondary females. Combined with higher rates of partial brood loss among secondary females, our results suggest that secondary females are unable to provide enough care to consistently fledge all nestlings in their broods, likely due to reduced male provisioning. Given that the sex ratio of breeders in the population is female-biased, we suggest that polygyny persists despite its fitness costs because some females must mate polygynously to "make the best of a bad situation." Our study demonstrates the value of detailed, long-term population monitoring data for understanding mating systems and using multiple indices of fitness to analyze the costs of polygyny.

Evaluation of the Effect of Social Status on Social Health in Turkiye

Evaluation of the Effect of Social Status on Social Health in Turkiye

Group information enhances recognition of both learned and unlearned face appearances.

Are people better at recognizing individuals of more relevant groups, such as ingroup compared to outgroup members or high-status compared to low-status individuals? Previous studies that associated faces with group information found a robust effect of group on face recognition but only tested it using the same images presented during the learning phase. They therefore cannot tell whether group information enhances encoding of the specific image presented during learning or encoding of the person who appears in it, which should generalize to other images of that person. In addition, the measures used in these studies do not sufficiently distinguish between sensitivity and response bias. In this article, we addressed these limitations and examined in three experiments the effect of group membership (Experiments 1 and 2) and social status (Experiment 3) on face recognition. In all experiments, we assessed recognition of both learned and unlearned views of the learned faces. Our results show improved recognition of ingroup members compared to outgroup members and of individuals of high-status groups compared to low-status groups for both learned and unlearned views. These effects emerged also when we used measures of memory accuracy that adequately control for response bias. These findings highlight the importance of group and status information in person recognition. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Mediation effects of subjective social status and personality traits between childhood nurturing experiences and depressive symptoms in adult volunteers.

Various risk factors, such as childhood nurturing experiences and subjective social status, have been identified to be involved in the onset of depression. However, the mechanism of depression is not yet fully understood. In this study, we hypothesized that nurturing experienced in childhood affects subjective social status and current personality traits, which in turn influence depressive symptoms in adulthood, and verified this hypothesis through structural equation modeling. A questionnaire survey was conducted on 404 adults. Multiple regression analysis and structural equation modeling were conducted using demographic information and scores for the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, Parental Bonding Instrument, and NEO Five-Factor Inventory. Subjective social status was found to mediate the association between nurturing experiences and neuroticism (0.029 for Overprotection and -0.034 for Care). On the other hand, neuroticism was found to mediate the association between subjective social status and depressive symptoms (-0.097 in Care model and -0.103 in Overprotection model), as well as the association between nurturing experiences and depressive symptoms (0.144 for Overprotection and -0.134 for Care). Furthermore, it was also shown that complex paths, in which the association of nurturing experiences with depressive symptoms was mediated by two factors, namely, subjective social status and neuroticism, were statistically significant as indirect effects (0.016 for Overprotection and -0.018 for Care). In this study, we clarified that nurturing experienced in childhood affects neuroticism in adulthood, which is mediated by subjective social status, and furthermore, the effects of nurturing on neuroticism lead to varying levels of depressive symptoms in adulthood. The mediation effects demonstrated in the present study may contribute towards unraveling the causes of depression and developing effective treatments for depressive symptoms.

Mental health effects of government transfer payments in urban China—An empirical study based on CFPS panel data

Government transfer payments play a crucial role in redistributing wealth and alleviating relative poverty. However, the mental health effects of government transfers remain to be explored. This study aims to explore the internal mechanisms of the mental health effects of government transfer payments by examining individuals' subjective evaluations and attitudes. Based on panel data from the 2016 and 2018 China Family Panel Studies (CFPS) urban sample composition (N=6645), the PSM-DID model was used to investigate the mental health effects of government transfer payments. Based on the calculation of the PSM-DID model, this study examined the effects of social security satisfaction and subjective social status on the mental health effects of government transfer payments through the mediation model and moderation model. The study found that, overall, receiving government transfer payments can significantly reduce the level of individual depression. In examining the mechanism linking government transfer payments and mental health, it was discovered that social security satisfaction partially mediates this relationship. Additionally, subjective social status was identified as a negative moderating factor in this relationship, meaning that the alleviating effect of government transfer payments on depression diminishes as subjective social status increases. Therefore, in future policy optimization, firstly, the size and scope of urban government transfer payments should be expanded to directly improve the living standards of recipients. Secondly, social security programs should be strengthened. Thirdly, implementing the targeted interventions to address disparities in subjective social status should be considered.

Health behaviors at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence for indirect effects of subjective social status via psychological distress.

Subjective social status (SSS), the perception of one's social standing compared to others in society, and socioeconomic status (SES) are interconnected but distinct determinants of health. Intermediary factors such as distress and health behaviors can contribute to this relationship. This pre-registered study hypothesized that, in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, nonspecific psychological distress would indirectly link SSS and SES to perceived changes in three health behaviors: sleep quality, physical activity, and alcohol consumption. Data from 412 US adults were collected from April to June 2020 through an online cross-sectional survey. Findings indicated that lower SSS was indirectly associated with lower current sleep quality, worsened sleep quality, and decreased physical activity since the pandemic onset via greater psychological distress. Path analyses controlled for age, gender, race, COVID-19-related worry, and shelter-in-place status. Results are discussed in light of findings from COVID-19 research and the broader literature on SES health disparities.

Examining Financial Strain and Subjective Social Status in Terms of Behavioral Health Among Latinx Adults in a Federally Qualified Health Center.

There is a growing recognition that Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) can inform some sources of physical and mental health disparities among the Latinx population. The current study sought to expand previous research by exploring the singular and interactive influence of financial strain and subjective social status-two common and clinically important SDoH factors-on pain intensity, pain disability, general depression, social anxiety, and anxious arousal. The current sample consisted of 155 Latinx adults (81.3% female; Mage = 40.02years, SD = 10.61) presenting for care at a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). Multivariate results demonstrated that financial strain was statistically significantly associated with greater pain intensity, pain disability, general depression, and anxious arousal, but not social anxiety. Further, lower subjective social status was related to greater general depression, social anxiety, and anxious arousal but not with higher levels of pain indices. An interactive effect was found wherein the combination of higher levels of financial strain and low levels of subjective social status was related to general depression and anxious arousal. This is the first study to empirically evaluate the main and interactive effects of financial strain and subjective social status regarding numerous physical and mental health symptoms. These findings clarify how two prevalent SDoH factors influence health outcomes. Specifically, the results suggest that a multi-risk conceptualization can advance a fine-grained understanding of Latinx health disparities by showing differential associations between SDoH factors and clinical outcomes that are frequently the source of health inequities in the Latinx population.

Departures of Tainted Outside Directors: A Threshold Approach From Two Competing Theoretical Perspectives

Although a tainted outside director’s social status may serve as a buffer against devaluation owing to an affiliate firm’s corporate financial misconduct, the extent of this buffer effect is unclear. We propose a threshold approach by introducing the expectancy violation perspective, which generates a theoretical tension from the network-embeddedness perspective, to clarify the following question: From which perspective does the buffer effect of social status become more salient? Specifically, we propose an inverted U–shaped relationship between the directors’ social status and the departure of tainted outside directors from host firms. We theorize that when directors’ social status exceeds a certain threshold, the network-embeddedness perspective is more dominant than the expectancy violation perspective. Moreover, a host firm’s external stakeholder attention and board social status moderate the inverted-U effect such that its turning point shifts to the right because such contingencies increase the threshold for the buffer. Using a sample of tainted outside directors penalized for associated firms’ financial misconduct, we find evidence that supports our predictions. Our study helps clarify the boundary between the competing theoretical perspectives of expectancy violation and network embeddedness to explain the phenomenon of tainted director departure.

Does Status Equal Substance? The Effects of Specialist Social Status on Auditor Assessments of Complex Estimates

ABSTRACT Auditing standards require that auditors’ reliance on a specialist is commensurate with the specialist’s competence. In assessing competence, auditors encounter cues diagnostic of the specialist’s social status but less so of competence. In an experiment, we manipulate specialist status and find that auditors mistake status for competence unless they are prompted to separate the constructs. This raises the possibility that auditors could over-rely on high-status specialists. However, auditors also assess high-status specialists as more influential, and when the specialist disagrees with the client, they rely more on high-status specialists because of this perceived influence. Thus, high-status specialists can increase auditors’ willingness to challenge the client by providing a strong ally. Additional analyses suggest that auditors are aware that they rely on the specialist’s influence rather than competence, indicating that auditors do not use the process that auditing standards envision to evaluate and rely on specialists. Data Availability: Data are available upon request. JEL Classifications: M42.

Expatriate voice: The effects of nationality and social status

AbstractThe expression of voice is valuable for organisations and individuals but most of what we know about voice is drawn from western contexts. This paper focuses on why, how and on what issues expatriates speak up. Examining voice in the multinational context of the United Arab Emirates allows us to develop a more in‐depth understanding of national, organisational, and individual factors that influence voice. Interviews with 71 expatriates and 29 host country nationals show that expatriates' social status influences their attitude and behaviour towards voice and that informal structures and social networks in organisations are important in understanding expatriates' voice behaviours. The overlapping categories of expatriates from non‐western countries and expatriates in low‐status jobs take a wider view of their situation and are as a result less likely to use voice in the workplace.

Effect of site, silviculture and tree social status on internal checking variation in plantation-grown Eucalyptus nitens

ABSTRACT Internal checking is a wood-drying defect that affects many tree species, including eucalypts, and can adversely affect the recovery of high-quality timber. We studied the patterns of within- and between-tree variation in wood checking from three Eucalyptus nitens silvicultural trials and determined the predictability of wood checking from wood properties. We hypothesised that changed wind exposure and inter-tree competition due to thinning would increase wood checking. In total, 144 trees from two silvicultural treatments (thinned/unthinned) and three social status classes per site (dominant/subdominant/suppressed) were sampled. Regardless of site, social status and silvicultural treatment, longitudinal and radial variation within trees was the major source of variation in checking. Checking was concentrated longitudinally in bottom logs and radially in the middle of wedges, with a shift in checking towards the cambium in the thinned treatment. On average, dominant trees in the thinned treatment had higher levels of checking than dominant trees in unthinned treatments at all sites, but the opposite trend was found for suppressed trees. Wedge checking was poorly predicted using non-destructive traits assessed on standing trees. Our models accounted for at most 22% of the variation in wedge checking and the best predictors were the destructive measures of wedge collapse. With most checking occurring in lower logs, future studies should concentrate on reducing checking in bottom logs, which are typically pruned for clearwood products.

Effects of Subjective Social Status and Self-Esteem in the Association Between Childhood Abuse and Adulthood Anxiety.

Subjective social status influences anxiety, but at present, the mechanism is not fully understood. It has been reported that negative childhood experiences, such as abuse, can influence depressive symptoms through subjective social status and personality traits, such as self-esteem. A similar mechanism is presumed to underlie anxiety symptoms in adulthood. Therefore, we hypothesized that subjective social status and self-esteem are intermediate factors in the indirect effects of childhood abuse on state anxiety in adulthood, and analyzed the indirect effects via these factors using a path analysis. Child Abuse and Trauma Scale, Subjective Social Status, Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Form Y questionnaires were administered in a self-report format to 404 adult volunteers from January 2014 to August 2014. In addition, a path analysis was conducted to determine whether subjective social status and self-esteem are associated with the indirect effects of childhood abuse on anxiety symptoms in adulthood. Childhood abuse did not directly affect state anxiety in adulthood, but affected state anxiety via subjective social status and self-esteem. Subjective social status affected state anxiety via self-esteem. This model explained 25.2% of the variation in state anxiety in adult volunteers. The present study demonstrated that childhood abuse affects anxiety in adulthood through subjective social status and self-esteem. Therefore, interventions that enhance subjective social status and self-esteem for adults who experienced childhood abuse may help reduce their anxiety.

Epigenetic signatures of social status in wild female spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta)

In mammalian societies, dominance hierarchies translate into inequalities in health, reproductive performance and survival. DNA methylation is thought to mediate the effects of social status on gene expression and phenotypic outcomes, yet a study of social status-specific DNA methylation profiles in different age classes in a wild social mammal is missing. We tested for social status signatures in DNA methylation profiles in wild female spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta), cubs and adults, using non-invasively collected gut epithelium samples. In spotted hyena clans, female social status influences access to resources, foraging behavior, health, reproductive performance and survival. We identified 149 differentially methylated regions between 42 high- and low-ranking female spotted hyenas (cubs and adults). Differentially methylated genes were associated with energy conversion, immune function, glutamate receptor signalling and ion transport. Our results provide evidence that socio-environmental inequalities are reflected at the molecular level in cubs and adults in a wild social mammal.

Perceived Social Exclusion Partially Accounts for Social Status Effects on Subjective Well-Being: A Comparative Study of Japan, Germany, and the United States

People who are socioeconomically better off tend to report higher levels of well-being, with inconsistent roles ascribed to objective socioeconomic status (SES), subjective SES (SSES), and personal relative deprivation (PRD)—depending on the predictors, facets of well-being, and countries under study. We tested a comprehensive model of social status indicators as determinants of subjective well-being by a) including PRD, SSES, income, and education as predictors, b) assessing subjective well-being as well as interdependent happiness (happiness in relation to significant others), c) testing the model in Japan, Germany, and the US—countries with comparable societal structure (e.g., educated, industrialized, rich, democratic) but diverging cultural dimensions, and d) testing an explanatory variable: feeling excluded from society. Cross-culturally (N = 2,155), PRD and SSES independently and strongly predicted well-being, while income and education exhibited negligible direct effects. SSES emerged as the predominant predictor in Japan compared to the US and Germany, whereas PRD was the predominant predictor in the US compared to Germany and, to a lesser extent, Japan. This was largely accounted for by culture-specific links of social status with perceived social exclusion—the extent to which people feel unable to keep up with society as a whole. Perceived social exclusion was more strongly linked to SSES in Japan compared to Germany and the US, and more strongly linked to PRD in the US than in Germany. The role of perceived social exclusion as an explanatory variable in the relationship between social status and subjective well-being merits further investigation within and between countries.