Doctoral Dissertation Research: Status, Group Identity and Influence: An Experimental Test

University Of Iowa, Iowa City IA

Investigators

Abstract

SES 0082775 PI: Barry Markovsky, Christopher Barnum Oftentimes in group settings, both status differences and in-group membership are salient. Theories of status generalization describe how status differences can lead to inferences of differential ability, while theories of situated identities describe how group membership can lead to certain differences in influence behaviors. In situations where both processes function, they may make different predictions. For instance, a committee composed of Republicans and Democrats will show influence effects dependent both on ability inferences (a status process) and on group membership (an identity process). This project offers a conceptualization of such situations, and tests the conceptualization in a series of experiments. The primary result of this work will be to build a theory of how status and identity interact in some cases, and the theory may have important real-life applications.