The Rise and Fall of Power and Prestige Orders: Expanding Status Characteristics Theory by Examining Group Environments and Social Cognitive Processes

University Of Maine, Orono ME

Investigators

Abstract

This project involves conducting three experimental studies aimed at discovering new ways to overcome undesirable status generalization. Status generalization refers to a well-documented tendency, under certain conditions, to infer ability based on status characteristics such as ethnicity or skin color. This work is aimed at reducing status generalization in classrooms, and it builds on a large body of such applied work conducted over several decades by other investigators. To the ideas of status generalization theories, these experiments add other social psychological processes, including effects of motivation, legitimacy of power structures, types of tasks, and stability of social structures. Results will be useful for extending theories of status generalization, and they should have ready application to practical settings such as classrooms and work teams.