When status is grabbed and when status is granted: Getting ahead in dominance and prestige hierarchies

What type of behaviour affords status, agentic, or communal? Research to date has yielded inconsistent answers. In particular, the conflict view holds that agentic behaviour permits the imperious to grab status through overt force, whereas the functional view holds that communal behaviour permits th...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:British journal of social psychology 2015-09, Vol.54 (3), p.445-464
Main Authors: de Waal-Andrews, Wendy, Gregg, Aiden P., Lammers, Joris
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adolescent
agentic behaviour
communal behaviour
dominance
Female
hierarchy type
Humans
Male
prestige
Psychological Theory
Social Behavior
Social Dominance
Status
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:What type of behaviour affords status, agentic, or communal? Research to date has yielded inconsistent answers. In particular, the conflict view holds that agentic behaviour permits the imperious to grab status through overt force, whereas the functional view holds that communal behaviour permits the talented to earn status through popular appeal. Here, we synthesize both views by taking into account the moderating role played by group hierarchy. Group hierarchy can range from being dominance based (where status is grabbed) to prestige based (where status is granted). In a field study (Study 1), and a laboratory experiment (Study 2), we demonstrate that in different groups, status can be achieved in different ways. Specifically, agentic behaviour promotes status regardless of hierarchy type, whereas the effect of communal behaviour on status is moderated by hierarchy type: it augments it in more prestige‐based hierarchies but diminishes it in more dominance‐based hierarchies.
ISSN:0144-6665
2044-8309
DOI:10.1111/bjso.12093