The Formation and Spread of Status Beliefs

Stanford University, Stanford CA

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract SES 9911331 Cecilia L Ridgeway This project supports theoretical and experimental work to advance an established theory of the ways in which unevaluated personal characteristics can acquire status value. The theory is concerned with understanding how a property of an individual-say, eye color or handedness-can take on connotations of social worth and performance capacities-such as those now possessed by gender and skin color in our society. In this work, the concern is how certain structural conditions, such as differing wealth, can lead to attaching status value to distinguishing characteristics of the people involved. The theory proposes that economic inequality leads to specific interaction patterns, and it is those patterns that can, under conditions specified by the theory, lead to presumptions of ability and its lack. The inferred ability differences then spread, according to patterns specified in the theory, to create general understandings regarding the social value of individuals possessing differentiating characteristics. The status creation process can be blocked if an interactant challenges the presumed status valuation while it is being created. In other words, the theory argues that interaction patterns can create local realities where categorical difference becomes consensually evaluated. The experiment will test that argument. Participants in four-person teams will overhear a teammate treat another teammate in ways the theory claims should lead to inferences about status difference. A third teammate will either support or challenge the influence hierarchy. If the theory is correct, social support will lead to status creation, and challenge will block it. Results will be used to modify the theory of status construction that the PI and her students have been developing over the past decade.