title: When status is grabbed and when status is granted: Getting ahead in dominance and prestige hierarchies.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Southampton, UK.|Department of Social Psychology, Tilburg University, Tilburg, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Wendy
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: de Waal-Andrews
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Southampton, UK.
authors.forename: Aiden P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Gregg
authors.affiliation: Social Cognition Center Cologne, University of Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Joris
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lammers
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011582:Psychological Theory; D012106:Research; D012919:Social Behavior; D012930:Social Dominance
keywords: Status; agentic behaviour; communal behaviour; dominance; hierarchy type; prestige