THE SOCIAL CONSEQUENCES OF VOICE McCLEAN, ELIZABETH J.; MARTIN, SEAN R.; EMICH, KYLE J. ...
Academy of Management journal,
10/2018, Volume:
61, Issue:
5
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
This paper explores the impact of two types of voice and gender on peer-rated social status and subsequent leader emergence. Across two studies—a three-wave field study and an experiment—we find that ...speaking up promotively, but not prohibitively, is positively and indirectly related to leader emergence via status, and that this relationship is conditional on the gender of the speaker. Specifically, men who spoke up promotively benefited the most in terms of status and leader emergence, not only compared to men who spoke up prohibitively, but also compared to women who spoke up promotively. This research extends our understanding of the outcomes of voice by articulating how it impacts one’s place in his or her group’s social structure, and ultimately whether he or she is seen as a leader. We also add to our understanding of leader emergence by suggesting that talking a lot or participating at a high level in a group may not be enough to emerge as a leader—it also depends how you do it and who you are.
Although economic development is broadly associated with low fertility, countries with a predominantly East Asian cultural population exhibit the lowest fertility rates in the developed world. This ...study (N = 243) examined social status affordance (SSA) as a novel factor underlying cultural variations in marriage and childbearing attitudes. Drawing from a life history perspective, we argue that SSA reflects the availability and ease of attaining social status from the environment, which then influences people's reproductive motivations. We found that strong competition for prestigious jobs in developed East Asian countries, which is hypothesized to be an outcome of their collectivistic nature and the importance they place on endowed social status, was associated with reduced SSA and, in turn, less favorable attitudes towards marriage and preference for less children. These effects were driven by men, primarily. We conclude with a discussion of the implications and suggestions for further research.
Possible selves and strategies serve a number of functions across the life span and are particularly relevant to emerging adulthood. Building on past research, which suggests that possible selves and ...strategies are contextually bound, the current study examined the relationship between objective and subjective social status and possible selves and strategies among emerging adult college students. Data were collected through an online survey (n = 282), and multiple regressions with alpha-adjustment procedures were used. Results indicated a negative relationship between family subjective social status and expected material/lifestyles possible selves and strategies and a positive relationship between individual subjective social status and expected material/lifestyle possible selves. Findings emphasize the relationship between social status and material/lifestyle possible selves and strategies among a sample of emerging adults, which is increasingly important during this time when many are navigating pathways toward independence while balancing continued reliance on their families.
High social status is often associated with greater mating opportunities and fertility for men, but do women also obtain fitness benefits of high status? Greater resource access and child ...survivorship may be principal pathways through which social status increases women's fitness. Here, we examine whether peer-rankings of women's social status (indicated by political influence, project leadership, and respect) positively covaries with child nutritional status and health in a community of Amazonian horticulturalists. We find that maternal political influence is associated with improved child health outcomes in models adjusting for maternal age, parental height and weight, level of schooling, household income, family size, and number of kin in the community. Children of politically influential women have higher weight-for-age (
= 0.33; 95% CI = 0.12-0.54), height-for-age (
= 0.32; 95% CI = 0.10-0.54), and weight-for-height (
= 0.24; 95% CI = 0.04-0.44), and they are less likely to be diagnosed with common illnesses (OR = 0.48; 95% CI = 0.31-0.76). These results are consistent with women leveraging their social status to enhance reproductive success through improvements in child health. We discuss these results in light of parental investment theory and the implications for the evolution of female social status in humans.
Peer status is an important aspect of adolescents’ social lives and is pursued actively by them. Although extensive research has examined how social behaviors are related to peer status (e.g., social ...preference, popularity), little attention has been given to adolescents’ social goals to obtain a desired peer status. Thus, this study examined two types of social status goals, popularity goal and social preference goal, and their relationships to social status insecurity and social behaviors among 405 ethnically diverse early adolescents (267 girls;
M
age = 12.92 years; age range = 11–15 years). After accounting for adolescents’ attained peer statuses (popularity and social preference), both social status goals were related distinctly to aggressive and prosocial behaviors as measured by self reports and peer nominations. Specifically, higher endorsement of the popularity goal was related to more self-reported relational aggression, but less peer-nominated prosocial behavior. In contrast, higher endorsement of the social preference goal was linked to less self-reported overt and relational aggression, but more self-reported and peer-nominated prosocial behavior. In addition, this study reveals that adolescents’ social status insecurity was related positively to both social status goals and had an indirect effect on adolescents’ social behaviors through the mediation of popularity goal endorsement. There were variations in goal endorsement as shown by groups of adolescents endorsing different levels of each goal. The group comparison results on social behaviors were largely consistent with the correlational findings. This study provides new insights into adolescents’ social cognitive processes about peer status and the implications of the two social status goals on adolescents’ behavioral development.
Low socioeconomic status (measured both objectively and subjectively) is systematically associated with worse health. Amid renewed interest in contextual influences on health inequalities, we ask ...whether variation in the prevailing ideological climate moderates the size of the health gap between low and high status individuals. Based on the minority stress hypothesis, we expect that living in an economically progressive place within Switzerland – places where more residents endorse the need for change to the economic status quo – will reduce the magnitude of the health gap. Multilevel modelling of MOSAiCH 2015–2020 data shows the opposite: low status individuals in progressive places report markedly lower subjective health and life satisfaction than similarly low status individuals in conservative places, such that status-based health inequalities are maximised in progressive places. We interpret this apparent progressive place paradox in terms of collective inefficacy and system frustration, which we argue is the corollary of system justification.
•This study proposes ideological climates as a novel contextual factor that can impact status-based health inequalities.•Based on the minority stress hypothesis, we expect health gaps to be smaller in economically progressive places within Switzerland.•Against expectations, low status individuals in economically progressive places report markedly lower health and life satisfaction.•We interpret these results in terms of collective inefficacy and system frustration, which we argue is the corollary of system justification.
Using panel data from Luxembourg, we investigate the relationship between young individuals’ perceived coping with the COVID-19 pandemic context and subjective well-being during the short and ...mid-term phases of the pandemic (i.e., a few months after its outbreak in July 2020 and one year later in July 2021). Additionally, the study examines how this relationship evolves depending on youths’ subjective social status. Luxembourg is an important setting, as it is one of the happiest countries in the world, with the highest GDP per capita. According to our results, perceived coping with the COVID-19 context matters for subjective well-being beyond individual and macro characteristics. We found a strong correlation between perceptions of coping with the COVID-19 pandemic context and subjective well-being in high-social-status individuals and a weaker correlation for low- and middle-social-status individuals. Furthermore, the relationship between perceptions of coping with the pandemic and well-being was stable over time. The article stipulates several reasons for these results, such as a ‘comfort conditioning’ response to the pandemic for young high-social-status individuals.
Abstract
Background
Subjective social status (SSS) has shown inverse relationships with cardiometabolic risk, but intersectionalities of race/ethnicity and sex may indicate more nuanced ...relationships.
Purpose
To investigate associations of SSS with cardiometabolic risk markers by race/ethnicity and sex.
Methods
Data were from Wave IV (2008) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (n = 4,847; 24–32 years), which collected biological cardiometabolic risk markers. A 10-step ladder captured SSS; respondents indicated on which step they perceived they stood in relation to other people in the U.S. higher values indicated higher SSS (range: 1–10). We tested the relationship between SSS and individual markers using generalized least square means linear regression models, testing three-way interactions between SSS, race/ethnicity, and sex (p < .10) before stratification.
Results
SSS–race/ethnicity–sex interactions were significantly associated with waist circumference (p ≤ .0001), body mass index (BMI; p ≤ .0001), systolic blood pressure (SBP; p ≤ .0001), diastolic blood pressure (DBP; p = .0004), and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C; p = .07). SSS was associated with waist circumference (β SE: −1.2 (0.4), p < .05) and BMI (−0.6 0.2, p < .01) for non-Hispanic White females, compared with males; with HDL-C among non-Hispanic White (0.2 0.1; p < .05) and Hispanic (0.3 (0.1); p < .05) females, compared with males; with SBP for non-Hispanic Asian (1.7 0.8; p < .05) and Multiracial (1.8 0.8; p < .05), versus White, females; and with DBP for non-Hispanic Black (0.8 0.3; p < .01), versus White, males.
Conclusions
SSS was differentially related to cardiometabolic risk markers by race/ethnicity and sex, suggesting intersectional aspects. Clinical and research applications of SSS should consider race/ethnicity- and sex-specific pathways influencing cardiometabolic risk.
Young White women with higher levels of subjective social status had smaller waist circumference and lower systolic blood pressure, but higher subjective social status was not as protective for young White men, Asian women, or Multiracial women.
Children's socioeconomic status (SES) is linked to disparate access to resources and affects social behaviors such as inclusion and resource allocations. Yet it is unclear whether children's ...essentialized view of SES (i.e., believing SES is immutable) or subjective social status (SSS) influences behavioral biases toward high- versus low-SES peers. We measured 4- to 9-year-old children's SES essentialism and SSS to test whether these predict inclusion and resource allocations to high- versus low-SES peers (N = 127; from a midsize city in the Southeastern United States; 49.6% female; parent-reported 54.2% White, 2.8% Black, 8.3% Latine, 5.6% Asian, 1.4% another race, 27.8% multiracial, 43.3% not provided). We also compared children's SES beliefs to their parent's. Children's SES essentialism and SSS decreased across the ages tested, and children reported higher SSS than their parents. Parents' SES essentialism predicted younger (but not older) children's SES essentialism. Moreover, SES essentialism mediated the negative relationship between age and preference for including high-SES peers, while SSS mediated the negative relationship between age and preference for allocating more resources to high-SES peers. This suggests that beliefs about the nature of SES may influence sociorelational behavior like including or excluding others, while perceived social status (SSS) may influence resource allocations. Furthermore, older children and those with lower SES essentialism included low- versus high-SES peers more often while older and lower SSS children distributed more resources toward low- versus high-SES peers. Thus, children's SES essentialism and SSS may also influence their behaviors to either perpetuate or rectify inequality.
Public Significance Statement
This research identifies factors related to young children's (4- to 9-years-old) sociorelational behavior of including and allocating resources to others. We find that with age, children's socioeconomic status (SES) essentialism beliefs (e.g., believing that SES is stable and unchangeable) decrease and this is associated with a reduced bias around including low-SES peers. Similarly, subjective social status (e.g., perception of comparative social status) also decreases with age and is associated with reduced bias around giving resources to low-SES peers.
Full text
Available for:
CEKLJ, FFLJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PEFLJ
The declining 'subjective social status' of the low-educated working class has been advanced as a prominent explanation for right-wing populism. The working class has certainly been adversely ...affected by rising income inequality over the past decades, but we do not actually know if their perceived standing in the social hierarchy has declined correspondingly over time. This article examines trends in subjective social status in two 'most likely cases' - Germany and the US - between 1980 and 2018. We find that the subjective social status of the working class has not declined in absolute terms. However, there is evidence for relative status declines for the working class in Germany and substantial within-class heterogeneity in both countries. These findings imply that rising income inequality has a nuanced impact on status perceptions. When assessing the role of subjective social status for political outcomes, longitudinal perspectives that consider both absolute and relative changes seem promising.
Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at: https://doi.org/10.1080/01402382.2022.2038892 .
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