Doctoral Dissertation Research: A Theory of Status Achievement

University Of Washington, Seattle WA

Investigators

Abstract

This dissertation studies how status affects peoples' investment in voluntary associations. According to the proposed theory, the utility of status takes the form of positive self evaluations that occur when people interact in groups with shared focal activities. Therefore relative performance in the activity becomes a source of incentives, and desire to control the level of performance should affect investment. Rational actor and identity theories have neglected this foundation for explaining investment, and therefore status achievement may solve some long-standing anomalies in the explanation of costly participation. Although status is expected to affect investment similarly across social settings, comparisons will also be used to reveal the limits of the theory, and show how status achievement processes may vary across institutional settings. Three types of analyses are employed: (1) Agent based simulation is used to model the micro level process and to develop conditional expectations for the empirical analyses. (2) Longitudinal analyses test the individual level implication that investment depends on status and change in status. (3) Cross group comparisons reveal the scope limitations of the theory. Data are drawn from recently published ethnographies on avocations, vocations, and social movements. This project will assemble longitudinal datasets from a range of online groups and study how status and change in status affects level of investment. The broader impacts of this research will include substantive, theoretical, and practical benefits. Substantively, this research helps explain how social settings generate status incentives and alter patterns of investment. Understanding this process should be valuable to leaders of groups (e. g., managers, teachers) who often need to motivate members to invest their time and resources in the group. Theoretically, status achievement can explain why people invest in high cost activities when alternative paradigms (rational actor theory) predict they will not invest. The theory also describes a general micro-foundation for explaining investment in groups, and therefore the development of social capital. Finally, the study will generate several data sets of practical use to scholars of voluntary associations and online discussion groups. These data will be available from the International Consortium for Political and Social Research after the primary analyses are completed.