Status Hierarchies In Groups Research Articles

Unintended Consequences Of External Recognition In Teams With Status Multiplicity

Status has been referred to as the single most important dimension in social interaction. Yet less explored is that status hierarchies in groups evolve with needs of changing roles, group contexts,...

Uncertainty, Quality and Status: An Empirical Examination in Diverse Groups

This paper further develops and empirically tests a well-known formal model of the emergence and reproduction of status hierarchies in groups (Gould, 2002) and its recent extension (Lynn, Podolny, ...

... And Justice for All: A Multiple Needs Approach to Understanding Challenges to Status Hierarchies in Groups

In this paper, we provide a comprehensive model of individuals' needs for challenging the status hierarchy in groups. Drawing upon the justice literature, we contend that challenges to a group's status hierarchy are frequently based not merely on instrumental and relational reasons, but also, on moral grounds. That is, individuals are frequently concerned with the fairness of status distributions not only out of concern for their own status, but also out of concern that others are given the status they deserve. This, in turn, can lead group members to advocate for a more equality based distribution of status and engage in costly confrontations and sacrifice personal opportunities for others, even in the absence of explicit personal economic or social benefits.

Social status, masculinity, and testosterone in young men

Among other things, sexual selection theory posits that in species with limited male parental investment, males should evolve biological mechanisms to competitively dominate or otherwise compete with one another. It is unclear whether such proposed mechanisms would influence status hierarchies in small human groups. We report the results of a study investigating possible effects of prenatal (index-to-ring finger length ratio or 2D:4D) and salivary testosterone, and masculine identification, on status among 71 male college students living in nine residential groups. The results indicate no role of either prenatal or salivary testosterone in maintaining status hierarchies in these groups. A possible explanation is that peer-assessed status in these groups was arrived at cooperatively rather than through dominance contests.

Emotional Reactions and Status in Groups

Individuals' emotional reactions may play a role in the development and maintenance of status hierarchies in groups. We propose that emotional reactions compatible with status characteristics reduce status differences among group members, while incompatible emotional reactions increase status differences. We test our theory in four experiments using a variety of techniques. Results from all experiments support the theory. In Study 1, members of face-to-face groups were randomly assigned the position of leader and they reported more positive emotion after group interaction than did other group members. Studies 2, 3, and 4 used a more controlled laboratory setting to show that participants' negative emotion increased their resistance to a partner's influence. Positive emotion decreased resistance. Also, effects of emotions combined with effects of status information as predicted; this result suggests the possibility of beneficial interventions in work groups

Incipient Status in Small Groups

Unacquainted individuals, placed together in a Bales-type discussion group, quickly form a participation hierarchy that indicates status differentiation. This rapid structuring of status, similar to the rapid structuring of status hierarchies in groups of Rhesus monkeys, suggests some subtle form of dominance and submission signalling may be operating. Two experimental conditions test this possibility. In one condition a measure of subjects' initial eye glance rank is taken. Eye glance rank predicts their eventual positions in the status hierarchy of the group. In the second condition, subjects are prevented from having eye contact in their initial interaction. Here, the first speaker in the Bales group usually emerges as highest in the hierarchy. These results support the view that people use subtle cues, obtained during the first few seconds of interaction, to rank themselves in the status hierarchy. The findings also represent a further criticism of several prevailing theories of status in small groups.