Status Contests Research Articles

Relationships of the Ulna-to-fibula Ratio to Baseline and Reactive Steroid Hormone Levels: An Exploratory Study

ObjectiveOrganizational hormone effects on the human brain and behavior are often retrospectively assessed via morphological markers of prenatal (e.g., 2D:4D digit ratio) or pubertal (e.g., facial width-to-height ratio, fWHR) hormone exposure. It has been argued that markers should relate to circulating hormones particularly in challenging, dominance/status-relevant situations. However, meta-analytic research indicates that fWHR, a frequently used pubertal marker, is neither reliably sex-dimorphic nor related to steroid hormones. This casts doubt on fWHR’s validity for reflecting hormone levels. Ulna-to-fibula ratio (UFR), an alternative, long-bone-length-based pubertal marker, is sex-dimorphic and associated with dominance motivation. However, its hormonal associations were never tested before. We therefore explored UFR’s relationships to baseline and reactive hormone levels.MethodsWe measured ulna and fibula length as well as shoulder/waist/hip circumference of 81 participants (49 women; after exclusions) via anthropometry. Salivary hormone levels (estradiol, testosterone) at baseline and after a gross-motor one-on-one balancing contest were measured via radioimmunoassay.ResultsWe replicated UFR’s dimorphism, unrelatedness to height, and correlations to other putative markers of organizational hormone effects. On an exploratory basis, we found UFR to be related to overall baseline testosterone and to competition-induced reactive surges in steroid hormones (estradiol, testosterone) overall and in women.ConclusionsOur results hint at UFR’s relationship to baseline testosterone and may indicate functional connections between outcomes of pubertal organizational hormone effects and contest-induced steroid reactivity. Pubertal organizational hormone effects may prepare the endocrine system for dominance and status contests. However, the small sample and the exploratory nature of our research demands replication.

Normative Violence in Domestic Service: A Study of Exploitation, Status, and Grievability

This paper contributes to business ethics by focusing on consumption that is characterized by normative violence. By drawing on the work of Judith Butler this study of kajer lok—a female subaltern group of Indian domestic service providers—and their higher status clients shows how codes of status-based consumption shaped by markets, class, caste, and patriarchy create a social order that reduces kajer lok to “ungreivable” lives. Our study contributes to business ethics by focusing on exploitation and coercion in consumption rather than in production and of woman rather than of men. It adds to consumer research by revealing how social distinctions not only manifest in status contests in which symbolic power is at stake but also may produce violent exploitation and ungrievable lives.

Testosterone reactivity to competition and competitive endurance in men and women

Transient shifts in testosterone occur during competition and are thought to positively influence dominance behavior aimed at enhancing social status. However, individual differences in testosterone reactivity to status contests have not been well-studied in relation to real-time expressions of competitive behavior among men and women. This research tests the association between changes in endogenous testosterone levels during competition and performance in terms of competitive endurance. Participant sex, social presence, and relative status outcomes (e.g., winning vs. losing) are tested as moderators of this relationship. In two studies, men and women (total N = 398) competed in the competitive will task (timed weight-holding) either individually or in the presence of an opponent (Study 1) or as a team with and without the presence of a competitor team (Study 2). Results showed a positive relationship between testosterone reactivity and performance for men, particularly those who won or ranked highest among their group – with increasing testosterone predicting better performance and decreasing testosterone predicting worse performance. For women, the effect only emerged among individuals who competed in dyads and lost. In Study 2, an exploratory mediation analysis revealed that individual differences in trait dominance predicted both testosterone reactivity to competition and task performance, with testosterone reactivity (moderated by sex and status outcome) partially explaining the direct relationship between dominance-related traits and behavior. Our goal was to examine testosterone reactivity in relation to real-time competitive effort and highlight the potential role of this relationship in explaining how individual differences in trait dominance produce competitive behavior.

Testosterone, cortisol, and competitive will in men and women

Transient shifts in testosterone occur during competition and are thought to positively influence dominance behavior aimed at enhancing social status. However, individual differences in testosterone reactivity to status contests have not been well-studied in relation to real-time expressions of competitive behavior among men and women. This research tests the association between changes in endogenous testosterone levels during competition and performance in terms of competitive endurance. Participant sex, social presence, and relative status outcomes (e.g., winning vs. losing) are tested as moderators of this relationship. In two studies, men and women (total N = 398) competed in the competitive will task (timed weight-holding) either individually or in the presence of an opponent (Study 1) or as a team with and without the presence of a competitor team (Study 2). Results showed a positive relationship between testosterone reactivity and performance for men, particularly those who won or ranked highest among their group – with increasing testosterone predicting better performance and decreasing testosterone predicting worse performance. For women, the effect only emerged among individuals who competed in dyads and lost. In Study 2, an exploratory mediation analysis revealed that individual differences in trait dominance predicted both testosterone reactivity to competition and task performance, with testosterone reactivity (moderated by sex and status outcome) partially explaining the direct relationship between dominance-related traits and behavior. Our goal was to examine testosterone reactivity in relation to real-time competitive effort and highlight the potential role of this relationship in explaining how individual differences in trait dominance produce competitive behavior.

Honest Signals of Status: Facial and Bodily Dominance Are Related to Success in Physical but Not Nonphysical Competition.

Recent studies suggest that both facial and bodily dominance promote high status positions and predict status-seeking behaviors such as aggression and social dominance. An evolutionarily relevant context in which associations between these dominance signals and status outcomes may be prevalent are face-to-face status contests. The present study examined whether facial and bodily dominance predicted success in dyadic competitions (one physical discipline, arm wrestling, and three nonphysical disciplines) in men (N = 125) in a controlled laboratory setting. Men's bodies and faces were independently rated for physical dominance, and associations of these ratings with contest outcomes as well as mediating and moderating variables (such as physical strength, body height, trait dominance, baseline and reactive testosterone) were examined. Both facial and bodily dominance positively predicted success in the physical discipline, mediated by physical strength, but not in the three nonphysical disciplines. Our findings demonstrate that facial and bodily physical dominance may be honest signals for men's formidability and hence status potential, at least in a physically competitive context.

Exploring the Effect of Attachment Styles and Winning or Losing a Status Contest on Testosterone Levels.

A person’s ability to form relationships and seek and attain social status affects their chances of survival. We study how anxious and avoidant-attachment styles and subsequent winning or losing affects the testosterone (T) levels of team members playing two status contests. The first is a management game played by teams striving to earn the most profits. Winners and losers emerge due to the cognitive endeavor of the players, which provokes intense status dynamics. Avoidant-attached winners do not show higher T levels whereas anxious-attached winners do. The second is an economic game which is rigged and favors some teams to become richer than others; teams have the option though to trade with each other and reduce the self-perpetuating rich-poor dynamics embedded in the game. Besides attachment styles, we here also explore how authentic pride as a self-conscious emotion affects team members’ T levels as players trade with others to create more fairness. As in the first status contest, players’ T levels are not significantly affected by their avoidant attachment style, neither as a main effect nor in interaction with winning or losing the game. However, similar to the first game, players’ anxious attachment style affects their T levels: anxious-attached players generate significantly higher T levels when winning the game, but only when experiencing high authentic pride during the game. In short, the moderating effects of attachment style on winners’ T levels are partly replicated in both status games which allows us to better understand the functioning of working models of attachment styles during and after status contests and gives us a better understanding of working models of attachment styles in general.

Manufacturing Masculinity: Exploring Gender and Workplace Surveillance

Research on workplace surveillance highlights managerial initiatives to expand monitoring and make it less obtrusive, but we know relatively little about how to explain workers’ diverse responses to monitoring. Using ethnographic data collected at an electronics retailer, I suggest that gender-related status seeking between workers helps to account for variation in workers’ experience of and responses to workplace surveillance. Men used surveillance to demonstrate their skill and expertise relative to other men, a process I refer to as “manufacturing masculinity.” Although women also aspired to be strong and knowledgeable salespeople, they were treated as illegitimate competitors in men’s status contests. The company’s masculine culture primed workers to interpret surveillance through this gendered lens.

Prestige in a large-scale social group predicts longitudinal changes in testosterone.

In many social species, organisms adaptively fine-tune their competitive behavior in response to previous experiences of social status: Individuals who have prevailed in the past preferentially compete in the future, whereas those who have suffered defeat tend to defer and submit. A growing body of evidence suggests that testosterone functions as a "competition hormone" that coordinates this behavioral plasticity through its characteristic rise and fall following victory and defeat. Although well demonstrated in competitions underpinned by dominance (fear-based status derived from force and intimidation), this pattern has not been examined in status contests that depend solely on prestige-respect-based status derived from success, skills, and knowledge in locally valued domains, devoid of fear or antagonism. Thus, the hormonal mechanisms underlying prestige-based status are largely unknown. Here, we examine the effects of previous experiences of prestige-assessed using community-wide nominations of talent and advice provision-on intraindividual changes in testosterone in a large-scale naturalistic community. Results revealed that men who achieve high standing in the group's prestige hierarchy in the initial weeks of group formation show a rise in testosterone over the subsequent 2 months, whereas men with low-prestige show a decline or little change in testosterone-a pattern consistent with the functional significance of context-specific testosterone responses. No significant associations were found in women. These results suggest that the long-term up- and downregulation of testosterone provides a mechanism through which past experiences of prestige calibrate psychological systems in a manner that adaptively guides future efforts in seeking and maintaining prestige. (PsycINFO Database Record

Competition-related factors directly influence preferences for facial cues of dominance in allies.

Alliance formation is a critical dimension of social intelligence in political, social and biological systems. As some allies may provide greater “leverage” than others during social conflict, the cognitive architecture that supports alliance formation in humans may be shaped by recent experience, for example in light of the outcomes of violent or non-violent forms intrasexual competition. Here we used experimental priming techniques to explore this issue. Consistent with our predictions, while men’s preferences for dominant allies strengthened following losses (compared to victories) in violent intrasexual contests, women’s preferences for dominant allies weakened following losses (compared to victories) in violent intrasexual contests. Our findings suggest that while men may prefer dominant (i.e. masculine) allies following losses in violent confrontation in order to facilitate successful resource competition, women may “tend and befriend” following this scenario and seek support from prosocial (i.e. feminine) allies and/or avoid the potential costs of dominant allies as long-term social partners. Moreover, they demonstrate facultative responses to signals related to dominance in allies, which may shape sex differences in sociality in light of recent experience and suggest that intrasexual selection has shaped social intelligence in humans.Significance statementAlthough alliance formation is an important facet of social intelligence in political and biological systems, we know relatively little about the cognitive processes involved in social preferences for allies. As recent experience may alter the leverage provided by different social partners, here we tested whether preferences for facial cues to dominance-prosociality (masculinity-femininity) alter in light of recent experience of violent and economic contests for status. Our findings demonstrate sex-specific responses to these facial cues. While men’s preferences for facial cues related to dominance in allies strengthen following losses (compared to wins) in violent contests, women’s preferences for facial cues related to dominance in allies weaken following losses (compared to wins) in violent contests. These findings suggest that intrasexual selection, in part, has shaped the evolution of social intelligence in humans as revealed in flexibility in social preferences for allies.

The effects of previous experience and current condition on status contests in the bluebanded goby (Lythrypnus dalli)

Social status can change over a lifetime and affect fitness. Status transitions are often influenced by previous experience such that previous winners tend to dominate in future interactions, while losers tend to remain subordinate. We investigated the role of social status experience on future status contests in the bluebanded goby (Lythrypnus dalli), a highly social, sex-changing fish. Female L. dalli were given long-term experience as alpha (dominant) or beta (subordinate) in a stable social group of three fish (two females, one dominant male). We hypothesized that females with previous dominance experience would be more likely to become dominant in a novel context and change sex, a status-dependent transition. We found that in size-matched pairs, half of the previous alphas and half of the previous betas established and maintained dominance in the novel pair. Previous betas were more likely to become dominant in pairs with small relative differences in physical condition. Betas that initiated more interactions with the male in the stable group were also more likely to become dominant. Experience only had a transient effect on agonistic behavior during status establishment. In pairs in which the previous beta established dominance, individual agonistic efficiency, or the proportion of their approaches that led to a displacement, was lower. There was no long-term effect of experience on the rate of sex change. These data suggest that long-term tenure as a subordinate does not, itself, prevent status ascension and that physical condition and individual behavior are relevant factors that influence L. dalli contests.

The implicit rules of combat.

Conspecific violence has been pervasive throughout evolutionary history. The current research tested the hypotheses that individuals implicitly categorize combative contexts (i.e., play fighting, status contests, warfare, and anti-exploitative violence) and use the associated contextual information to guide expectations of combative tactics. Using U.S. and non-U.S. samples, Study 1 demonstrated consistent classification of combative contexts from scenarios for which little information was given and predictable shifts in the acceptability of combative tactics across contexts. Whereas severe tactics (e.g., eye-gouging) were acceptable in warfare and anti-exploitative violence, they were unacceptable in status contests and play fights. These results suggest the existence of implicit rules governing the contexts of combat. In Study 2, we explored the reputational consequences of violating these implicit rules. Results suggest that rule violators (e.g., those who use severe tactics in a status contest) are given less respect. These are the first studies to implicate specialized mechanisms for aggression that use contextual cues of violence to guide expectations and behavior.

Lafite in China

Increased economic power has positioned China within the global elite, yet China’s legitimacy remains low with regard to hierarchies of taste. Drawing from Bourdieu and Elias, this article offers an account of the global dynamics of status contests, and the role played by cultural capital and notions of civility and vulgarity. Specifically, we examine how U.S., UK, and Chinese media represent Chinese consumption of fine wine, and particularly that of Château Lafite, in the 2000 to 2013 period. Our analysis reveals four major ways in which Chinese fine wine consumption is framed—as vulgar, popular, functional, and discerning—and highlights tensions between Western and Chinese terms of cultural legitimacy. The research uncovers nuanced dimensions to the “East/West” divide in terms of the grades of cultural capital, competing logics of valuation, and modes of civility at play. Macromarketing implications of fine wine consumption in a fragmented and complex market are discussed.

Contests for Professional Status: Community College Faculty in Sociology

Community colleges are playing an increasingly important and visible role in higher education in the United States. However, the additional attention to community colleges has not produced the same degree of recognition regarding the importance and needs of the faculty within those institutions, who make up about 27 percent of all faculty members nation-wide. This article examines factors influencing the professional status of community college faculty. We argue that understanding the position of community college faculty in higher education today depends upon understanding that professional status is a dynamic and contested terrain, rather than a series of static characteristics. Following Abbott’s (1998) analysis of the efforts of librarians to achieve professional status, we consider how the changing structure of higher education in the United States may impact community college faculty as professionals, both positively and negatively. As one example of community college faculty raising their issues within a discipline-wide professional organization, we examine the current state of community college faculty with the American Sociological Association (ASA). We consider potential status changes for community college faculty in sociology within the context of the broad threats to the professional status of faculty across the higher education landscape. Paradoxically, these threats might result in an opening for efforts by community college faculty to improve their professional status, perhaps in coalition with faculty in other sectors of higher education.

Rating Performance or Contesting Status: Evidence Against the Homophily Explanation for Supervisor Demographic Skew in Performance Ratings

We propose and test an argument in which the well-documented skew in supervisory performance appraisal ratings toward those with the same demography as themselves is better explained by the status contests than the reigning theory of homophily. We conduct the test in a field study of 358 supervisor–subordinate dyads in 10 organizations, using hierarchical linear modeling with various controls. We find that supervisors' ratings of subordinates' contextual and task performance only skew toward similar subordinates when supervisors' status is contested by a higher demographic status subordinate, as predicted by social dominance and status characteristics theories. None of the general homophily preference hypotheses is supported. This study provides a richer theory more consistent with the accumulating evidence about demography effects in organizations and demonstrates the value of head-to-head strong inference tests and status explanations for the field of organizational behavior.

Organizing Contests for Status: The Matthew Effect vs. the Mark Effect

What is the best way to design tournaments for status, in which individuals labor primarily for the esteem of their peers? What process, in other words, should organizers of status-based contests impose upon those who covet peer recognition? We propose a formal model of status-based competition that contrasts two competing alternatives. The first, following Merton, is the “Matthew Effect,” according to which a tournament's architect directs slack resources to elite actors and thus widens the distribution of rewards by favoring cumulative advantage. The second is the “Mark Effect,” under which a tournament's designer instead pushes slack resources to marginal actors and thus tightens the distribution of rewards. Our results suggest that although the Mark Effect is better for the social welfare of most tournaments, the Matthew Effect is preferable in two distinct contexts: in small tournaments where variation in underlying ability translates into acute advantages for the most capable contestants; and in large tournaments whose contestants face constant, rather than rising, marginal costs—a condition we relate to contestants' perception of their work as intrinsically valuable. Our contributions are twofold: We find, counter to the thrust of Merton's work, that cumulative advantage is not invariably optimal for the functioning of status contests; and we identify circumstances in which the production of superstars is likely to make contests for status better off in aggregate. Implications for future research on status and management are discussed. This paper was accepted by Olav Sorenson, organizations and social networks.

FIGHTING OVER TRIVIAL THINGS: EXPLAINING THE ISSUE OF CONTENTION IN VIOLENT ALTERCATIONS*

Violent altercations can lead to serious injury and death, and yet some interpersonal disputes that prompt physical violence originate over what are seemingly trivial issues. This study evaluates the theoretical premise that violence stemming from what typically are defined as trivial altercations can be explained by what is at stake in these conflicts; trivial altercations, or fights about nothing, actually represent symbolic contests of dominance and deference. These status contests are necessary primarily when the social relationship between opponents is symmetrical—when a dominance hierarchy is not clearly established. Data from interviews with incarcerated women in Ontario, Canada, show that relationship symmetry strongly predicts the issue of contention in their physically violent altercations. These findings suggest that, when violence erupts over trivial issues, both parties to the altercation essentially are locked in a battle for social rank.

The dual voice of domination: ritual and power in a British embassy

This article examines the political and ideological processes that underlie the ritual event of a weekly gathering of Heads of Section at a British embassy. Relying on participant observation, audio recordings, and interviews, it juxtaposes participants' assumptions and projections about the meeting's symbolic role in achieving democratic ideals (community participation, status equality) with evidence of a battle zone, an arena for status contests and participants maneuvering for position. It explores this contrast on multiple levels of discourse and interaction, using transcripts from interviews and interaction during the meetings. It demonstrates not only the ritualistic importance of meetings in consolidating the powers that be but also the duality of the discourse around them, with a proclaimed ideology of shared power, shared knowledge, and equal opportunities masking and covering up an authority-based system promoting status differences and inequality.

Gambling in Dynamic Contests

This paper presents a strategic model of risk-taking behavior in the framework of a continuous time contest. Formally, we analyze a dynamic game in which each player decides when to stop a privately observed Brownian Motion with drift. Only the player who stops his process at the highest value wins a prize. We derive a closed-form solution for the unique Nash equilibrium outcome in mixed strategies and we establish that the expected value of the stopped stochastic processes is non-monotone in the drift. In particular, the highest losses in terms of expected value occur if the drift is only moderately negative. Thus, relative performance payments, while suitable to provide the right incentives in good times, induce socially undesirable gambling activities if times are moderately bad. Possible applications of the model include contests for status, job promotion contests, competition between mutual funds, and relative payment schemes of CEOs.

The Fourth Dimension: Status Conflict in Groups

We argue that Jehn's (1995; 1997) conflict trichotomy of task, relationship and process conflict missed a fourth fundamental type of group conflict, that which occurs over relative status positions. Using mixed methods with two samples of MBA student teams, we identify and determine the impact of status conflicts in task groups. We first qualitatively identify the characteristics of status conflicts when they occur independently or with a conflict that is ostensibly over tasks, relationships or processes. We next validate a three-item survey scale that distinctly measures status conflict. Finally, we determine that including status conflict along with task and relationship conflict in analyzes of group performance and team member satisfaction both increases the explanatory power of the models and exerts a significant, negative main effect. Thus, some of the ambiguity in research on the effects of group conflict on performance may be resolved by recognizing status conflicts. In addition, emerging research on status contests will benefit from cohering around a single definition and measurement scale.

Picking Up the Gauntlet: How Individuals Respond to Status Challenges

How do people respond to status challenges? We suggest that responses depend on the relative status and genders of challenger and target. These variables affect appraisals about the status challenge (operationally defined as an act of incivility) and likely outcomes of various responses, and those appraisals proximately determine responses. Studies 1 and 2 show that male gender and high status were associated with more aggressive responses, whereas female gender and low status were associated with more avoidant responses. Study 3 shows that men's and women's responses were not perfectly antithetical: Men showed the greatest resistance toward peers, which may reflect greater sensitivity to status contests among men. Perceived legitimacy of challengers' actions and consequences affect the status–gender–response relationships.