Doctoral Dissertation Research: Formal Vocabulary as a Status Cue: Interactions with Diffuse Status Characteristics

University Of Iowa, Iowa City IA

Investigators

Abstract

SES 0081484 PI: Michael J Lovaglia, Leda Kanellakos Status cues give clues to an individual's status characteristics and task abilities, and through the theoretical mechanism status generalization, have been shown to affect group structure and individual behavior. This project investigates formal vocabulary as a potential status cue. Preliminary results have shown that formal vocabulary does raise the performance expectations associated with an actor. This research investigates how that effect may interact with other status characteristics; in particular, whether the enhancement produced by vocabulary can raise expectations for actors already possessing high status as much as for actors possessing low status. Results will improve determinacy of theoretical explanations for effects of status cues, and will give some understanding of the applicability of this particular status cue in different kinds of social situations.