The current research tested whether the possession of high status, compared with the possession of low status, makes individuals desire having high status even more. Five studies (total N = 6,426), four of which were preregistered, supported this hypothesis. Individuals with higher status in their social groups or who were randomly assigned to a high-status condition were more motivated to have high status than were individuals with low status. Furthermore, upper-class individuals had a stronger status motive than working-class individuals, in part, due to their high status. High-status individuals had a stronger status motive, in part, because they were more confident in their ability to achieve (or retain) high status, but not because of other possible mechanisms (e.g., task self-efficacy). These findings provide a possible explanation for why status hierarchies are so stable and why inequality rises in social collectives over time.
AdlerN. E.EpelE. S.CastellazzoG.IckovicsJ. R. (2000). Relationship of subjective and objective social status with psychological and physiological functioning: Preliminary data in healthy, White women. Health Psychology, 19(6), 586–592.
2.
AndersonC.HildrethJ. A. D.HowlandL. (2015). Is the desire for status a fundamental human motive? A review of the empirical literature. Psychological Bulletin, 141(3), 574–601.
3.
AndersonC.KrausM. W.GalinskyA. D.KeltnerD. (2012). The local-ladder effect: Social status and subjective well-being. Psychological Science, 23(7), 764–771.
4.
AndersonC.SrivastavaS.BeerJ. S.SpataroS. E.ChatmanJ. A. (2006). Knowing your place: Self-perceptions of status in face-to-face groups. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91(6), 1094–1110.
5.
BalesR. F.StrodtbeckF. L.MillsT. M.RoseboroughM. E. (1951). Channels of communication in small groups. American Sociological Review, 16, 461–468.
6.
BanduraA. (1977). Self-efficacy: Toward a unifying theory of behavioral change. Psychological Review, 84(2), 191–215.
7.
BanduraA. (1982). Self-efficacy mechanism in human agency. American Psychologist, 37(2), 122–147.
8.
BaumeisterR. F.LearyM. R. (1995). The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 117, 497–529.
9.
BelmiP.NealeM. A.ReiffD.UlfeR. (2019). The social advantage of miscalibrated individuals: The relationship between social class and overconfidence and its implications for class-based inequality. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 118(2), 254–282.
10.
BenderskyC.HaysN. A. (2012). Status conflict in groups. Organization Science, 23(2), 323–340.
11.
BergerJ.CohenB. P.ZelditchM.Jr (1972). Status characteristics and social interaction. American Sociological Review, 37, 241–255.
12.
BladerS. L.ChenY. R. (2012). Differentiating the effects of status and power: A justice perspective. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102, 994–1014.
13.
BlauP. M.ScottW. R. (1962). Formal organizations: A comparative approach. Chandler.
14.
CarverC. S.ScheierM. F. (1990). Principles of self-regulation: Action and emotion. Guilford Press.
15.
CarverC. S.ScheierM. F. (1998). On the self-regulation of behavior. Cambridge University Press.
16.
CôtéS.HouseJ.WillerR. (2015). High economic inequality leads higher-income individuals to be less generous. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(52), 15838–15843.
17.
DeciE. L. (1971). Effects of externally mediated rewards on intrinsic motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 18(1), 105–115.
18.
DeciE. L.CascioW. F.KrusellJ. (1973, May). Sex differences, verbal reinforcement, and intrinsic motivation. Meeting of the Eastern Psychological Association, Washington, DC.
19.
DeciE. L.RyanR. M. (2000). The “what” and “why” of goal pursuits: Human needs and the self-determination of behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11(4), 227–268.
20.
DeciE. L.VallerandR. J.PelletierL. G.RyanR. M. (1991). Motivation and education: The self-determination perspective. Educational Psychologist, 26(3–4), 325–346.
21.
DonnellyG. E.ZhengT.HaisleyE.NortonM. I. (2018). The amount and source of millionaires’ wealth (moderately) predict their happiness. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 44(5), 684–699.
22.
EcclesJ. S.WigfieldA. (2002). Motivational beliefs, values, and goals. Annual Review of Psychology, 53(1), 109–132.
23.
FlynnF. J.ReagansR. E.AmanatullahE. T.AmesD. R. (2006). Helping one’s way to the top: Self-monitors achieve status by helping others and knowing who helps whom. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91(6), 1123–1137.
24.
GalinskyA. D.GruenfeldD. H.MageeJ. C. (2003). From power to action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(3), 453–466.
25.
GecasV. (1989). The social psychology of self-efficacy. Annual Review of Sociology, 15(1), 291–316.
26.
GonzalezR.WuG. (1999). On the shape of the probability weighting function. Cognitive Psychology, 38(1), 129–166.
27.
GrayJ. A. (1987). The psychology of fear and stress (Vol. 5). Cambridge University Press.
28.
GriskeviciusV.TyburJ. M.DeltonA. W.RobertsonT. E. (2011). The influence of mortality and socioeconomic status on risk and delayed rewards: A life history theory approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100(6), 1015–1026.
29.
GruenewaldT. L.KemenyM. E.AzizN. (2006). Subjective social status moderates cortisol responses to social threat. Brain, Behavior, and Immunity, 20(4), 410–419.
30.
GuinoteA. (2007). Power and goal pursuit. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33(8), 1076–1087.
31.
HardyC. L.Van VugtM. (2006). Nice guys finish first: The competitive altruism hypothesis. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 32(10), 1402–1413.
32.
HaysN. A.BenderskyC. (2015). Not all inequality is created equal: Effects of status versus power hierarchies on competition for upward mobility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108(6), 867–882.
33.
HenrichJ.Gil-WhiteF. J. (2001). The evolution of prestige: Freely conferred deference as a mechanism for enhancing the benefits of cultural transmission. Evolution and Human Behavior, 22(3), 165–196.
34.
Iso-AholaS. E.DotsonC. O. (2014). Psychological momentum: Why success breeds success. Review of General Psychology, 18(1), 19–33.
35.
JohnsonE. J.TverskyA. (1983). Affect, generalization, and the perception of risk. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 45(1), 20–31.
KennedyJ. A.AndersonC. (2017). Hierarchical rank and principled dissent: How holding higher rank suppresses objection to unethical practices. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 139, 30–49.
39.
KilduffG. J.WillerR.AndersonC. (2016). Hierarchy and its discontents: Status disagreement leads to withdrawal of contribution and lower group performance. Organization Science, 27(2), 373–390.
40.
KrausM. W.PiffP. K.KeltnerD. (2009). Social class, sense of control, and social explanation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97(6), 992–1004.
41.
LachmanM. E.WeaverS. L. (1998). The sense of control as a moderator of social class differences in health and well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(3), 763–773.
42.
LakensD.EtzA. J. (2017). Too true to be bad: When sets of studies with significant and nonsignificant findings are probably true. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 8(8), 875–881.
43.
LaurinK.EngstromH. R.AlicA. (2019). Motivational accounts of the vicious cycle of social status: An integrative framework using the United States as a case study. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 14(2), 107–137.
44.
LazarusR. S. (1968). Emotions and adaptation: Conceptual and empirical relations. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, 16, 175–266.
45.
LearyM. R.CottrellC. A.PhillipsM. (2001). Deconfounding the effects of dominance and social acceptance on self-esteem. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(5),898–909.
46.
LearyM. R.Jongman-SerenoK. P.DiebelsK. J. (2014). The pursuit of status: A self-presentational perspective on the quest for social value. In ChengJ.TracyJ.AndersonC. (Eds.), The psychology of social status (pp. 159–178). Springer.
47.
LernerJ. S.KeltnerD. (2001). Fear, anger, and risk. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(1), 146–159.
48.
MarkusH. R.KitayamaS. (2003). Culture, self, and the reality of the social. Psychological Inquiry, 14(3–4), 277–283.
49.
PettitN. C.SivanathanN.GladstoneE.MarrJ. C. (2013). Rising stars and sinking ships: Consequences of status momentum. Psychological Science, 24(8), 1579–1584.
50.
PettitN. C.YongK.SpataroS. E. (2010). Holding your place: Reactions to the prospect of status gains and losses. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46, 396–401.
51.
PickettC. L.GardnerW. L.KnowlesM. (2004). Getting a cue: The need to belong and enhanced sensitivity to social cues. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 30(9), 1095–1107.
52.
PikettyT.SaezE. (2014). Inequality in the long run. Science, 344(6186), 838–843.
53.
PreacherK. J.HayesA. F. (2008). Asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. Behavior Research Methods, 40(3), 879–891.
54.
RaskinR.TerryH. (1988). A principal-components analysis of the Narcissistic Personality Inventory and further evidence of its construct validity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(5), 890–902.
55.
RotterJ. B. (1966). Generalized expectancies for internal versus external control of reinforcement. Psychological Monographs: General and Applied, 80(1), 1–28.
56.
SnibbeA. C.MarkusH. R. (2005). You can’t always get what you want: Educational attainment, agency, and choice. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 88(4), 703–720.
57.
SnyderM. (1974). Self-monitoring of expressive behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 30(4), 526–537.
58.
TwengeJ. M.CampbellW. K. (2002). Self-esteem and socioeconomic status: A meta-analytic review. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 6(1), 59–71.
59.
VroomV. H. (1964). Work and motivation (Vol. 54). John Wiley.
60.
WillerR. (2009). Groups reward individual sacrifice: The status solution to the collective action problem. American Sociological Review, 74(1), 23–43.
61.
WinterD. G.StewartA. J. (1983). The power motive. In LondonH.ExnerJ. E. (Eds.), Dimensions of personality (pp. 391–447). John Wiley.
62.
WuepperD.LybbertT. J. (2017). Perceived self-efficacy, poverty, and economic development. Annual Review of Resource Economics, 9, 383–404.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
