Management and Organizations Department, New York University Stern School of Business, NY 10012, USA.
Psychol Sci. 2013 Aug;24(8):1579-84. doi: 10.1177/0956797612473120. Epub 2013 Jun 24.
Differences in rank are a ubiquitous feature of social life. Moving beyond the traditional static view of social hierarchy, five studies spanning multiple contexts examined how intertemporal changes in rank influenced people's status judgments. When final rank was held constant, people, products, and institutions were judged as higher status when they had arrived at this position by ascending, rather than descending, the hierarchy; moreover, these judgments affected downstream pricing recommendations, willingness to pay for products, and influence accepted from others. This impact of rank history on status judgments was accounted for by expectations of future status and moderated by the involvement of the self: The self and others are afforded an equivalent status boost for ascending to a given rank; however, only the self is pardoned the status tax that is levied on others for descending to the same rank. The theoretical utility of a dynamic approach to social hierarchy is discussed.
等级差异是社会生活中普遍存在的特征。超越传统的社会等级静态观点，五项跨越多个背景的研究考察了等级的时际变化如何影响人们的地位判断。当最终等级保持不变时，当人们通过上升而不是下降的等级到达这个位置时，他们对人、产品和机构的评价就会更高；此外，这些判断会影响下游的定价建议、对产品的支付意愿以及他人的认可接受度。等级历史对地位判断的这种影响是由对未来地位的期望解释的，并且受到自我参与的调节：上升到特定等级会给自我和他人带来同等的地位提升；然而，只有自我会被豁免对其他人下降到相同等级所征收的地位税。讨论了一种动态社会等级方法的理论效用。
