The Influence of Chronic and Situational Social Status on Stereotype Susceptibility

We tested whether stereotypical situations would affect low-status group members'' performance more strongly than high-status group members''. Experiment 1 and 2 tested this hypothesis using gender as a proxy of chronic social status and a gender-neutral task that has been randomly presented to favor boys (men superiority condition), favor girls (women superiority condition), or show no gender preference (control condition). Both experiments found that women’s (Experiment 1) and girls’ performance (Experiment 2) suffered more from the evoked stereotypes than did men''s and boys’ ones. This result was replicated in Experiment 3, indicating that short men (low-status group) were more affected compared to tall men (high-status group). Additionally, men were more affected compared to women when they perceived height as a threat. Hence, individuals are more or less vulnerable to identity threats as a function of the chronic social status at play; enjoying a high status provides protection and endorsing a low one weakens individual performance in stereotypical situations.     

Testosterone, cognition, and social status

What leads some people to perform better than others on certain cognitive tasks? One explanation involves individual differences in testosterone. Testosterone is associated with higher performance on spatial tests, and lower performance on verbal tests. However, a large literature suggests that testosterone only predicts behavior when status is in jeopardy. In the present study, we manipulated status before administering a spatial and verbal test. In a high-status position, high-testosterone individuals performed well on both tests, and blood pressure dropped. In a low-status position, high-testosterone individuals performed relatively poorly on both tests, and blood pressure did not change. These data suggest that differences in cognitive performance stem from an interaction between testosterone and the social situation.     

The Primary Parental Investment in Children in the Contemporary USA is Education

This paper tests the Trivers-Willard hypothesis that high-status individuals will invest more in sons and low-status individuals will invest more in daughters using data from the 2000 to 2010 General Social Survey and the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. We argue that the primary investment U.S. parents make in their children is in their children’s education, and this investment is facilitated by a diverse market of educational choices at every educational level. We examine two measures of this investment: children’s years of education and the highest degree attained. Results show that sons of high-status fathers receive more years of education and higher degrees than daughters, whereas daughters of low-status fathers receive more years of education and higher degrees than sons. Further analyses of possible mechanisms for these findings yield null results. We also find that males are more likely to have high-status fathers than females.     

Subjective socioeconomic status predicts human ventral striatal responses to social status information

The enormous influence of hierarchical rank on social interactions [1] suggests that neural mechanisms exist to process status-related information [2] and ascribe value to it. The ventral striatum is prominently implicated in processing value and salience, independent of hedonic properties [3, 4], and a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study of social status perception in humans demonstrated that viewing higher-ranked compared to lower-ranked individuals evokes a ventral striatal response [5], indicative of a greater assignment of value/salience to higher status. Consistent with this interpretation, nonhuman primates value information associated with higher-ranked conspecifics more than lower-ranked, as illustrated using a choice paradigm in which monkeys preferentially take the opportunity to view high-status monkeys [6]. Interestingly, this status-related value assignment in nonhuman primates is influenced by one's own hierarchical rank: high-status monkeys preferentially attend to conspecifics of high status, whereas low-status monkeys will also attend to other low-status monkeys [7]. Complementary to these findings, using fMRI and a social status judgment task in humans, we suggest a neurobiological mechanism by which one's own relative hierarchical rank influences the value attributed to particular social status information by demonstrating that one's subjective socioeconomic status differentially influences ventral striatal activity during processing of status-related information.     

Social inequality and signaling in a costly ritual

Evolutionary perspectives suggest that participation in collective rituals may serve important communicative functions by signaling practitioners' commitment to the community and its values. While previous research has examined the effects of ritual signals at the individual and collective level, there has been limited attention directed to the impact of socio-environmental factors on the quality of ritual signaling. We examined this impact in the context of the Thaipusam Kavadi, a collective ritual performed by Tamil Hindus worldwide that involves body piercings and other costly activities. We show that participants' relative position in the social hierarchy systematically affects the form of ritual signaling. Specifically, we found that low-status participants are more likely to engage in signaling modalities that require somatic and opportunity costs in the form of body piercings and cumulative effort, while high-status individuals are more likely to use financial capital, in the form of more elaborate material offerings to the deity. Moreover, signaling in each particular modality is stronger among individuals who participate in more public (but not private) rituals, corresponding to their long-term commitment to the community. In sum, our results demonstrate that social hierarchies exact unequal requirements on ritual participants, who in turn modify their signaling strategies accordingly.     

Prevalence and etiology of acquired anemia in Medieval York, England

This paper presents three distinct models for the development of acquired anemia: iron-deficiency anemia produced by the inadequate intake and/or absorption of iron, the anemia of chronic disease (ACD) caused by the body's natural iron-withholding defense against microbial invaders, and megaloblastic anemia caused by insufficient intake and/or absorption of vitamin B(12) or folic acid. These etiological models are used to interpret the distribution and etiology of anemia among adult individuals interred at the Medieval Gilbertine Priory of St. Andrew, Fishergate, York (n = 147). This bioarchaeological analysis uncovered not only a strong relationship between decreasing status and increasing prevalence of anemia for both men and women, but also identified clear sex-based differences at this site. Within the high-status group, blood and iron loss as a result of rampant parasitism likely produced an environment ripe for the development of iron-deficiency anemia, while the parasitic consumption of vitamin B(12) may have caused occasional cases of megaloblastic anemia. As status decreases, the interpretation of anemia becomes more complex, with megaloblastic anemia and ACD emerging as viable, potentially heavy contributors to the anemia experiences of low-status people at St. Andrew's. Apart from status effects, women (especially young women) are disproportionately affected by anemia when compared to men within their own status group and, on average, are also more likely to have experienced anemia than their male peers from other status groups. This suggests that high iron-demand reproductive functions helped to make iron-deficiency anemia a chronic condition in many women's lives irrespective of their status affiliation.     

Stable isotope evidence for sex- and status-based variations in diet and life history at medieval Trino Vercellese, Italy

The medieval period in Europe was a time of unprecedented social complexity that affected human diet. The diets of certain subgroups-for example, children, women, and the poor-are chronically underrepresented in historical sources from the medieval period. To better understand diet and the distribution of foods during the medieval period, we investigated stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratios of 30 individuals from Trino Vercellese, Northern Italy (8th-13th c.). Specifically, we examined diet differences between subgroups (males and females, and high- and low-status individuals), and diet change throughout the life course among these groups by comparing dentine and bone collagen. Our results show a diet based on terrestrial resources with input from C(4) plants, which could include proso and/or foxtail millet. Diets of low-status males differ from those of females (both status groups) and of high-status males. These differences develop in adulthood. Childhood diets are similar among the subgroups, but sex- and status-based differences appear in adulthood. We discuss the possibility of cultural buffering and dietary selectivity of females and high-status individuals.     

Dental caries and antemortem tooth loss in the Northern Peten area,Mexico: a biocultural perspective on social status differences among the Classic Maya

Dental caries and antemortem tooth loss (AMTL) are investigated in a Classic Maya sample obtained from the sites of Calakmul, Dzibanché, and Kohunlich (Mexico). This study aims at assessing the effect that sex and social status had on the prevalence of oral pathologies. The lack of a direct relationship between caries, AMTL, and age-at-death led us to interpret the results in terms of the biological, socioeconomic, and behavioral conditions prevailing in these ancient Maya settlements. Benefits related to sex and social status are evident in the frequency of carious lesions, which appear less frequently in elite males than in low-status individuals of both sexes and in elite females. Individuals from problematic mortuary contexts and isolated bone assemblages, who could not be ascribed to any status group, showed the highest rates of caries. Sex discrimination in dietary preferences appears in the elite sample, while the homogeneity encountered between sexes in the low-status segment suggests a more uniform access to resources. Tooth loss clearly distinguishes elite individuals from commoners, regardless of sex, with the former bearing a much higher rate of loss. In individuals from the undefined mortuary assemblages and sacrificial contexts, it was even more pronounced than in the other groups, although its interpretation is problematic due to a lack of associated funerary data. The overall evidence from oral pathologies is interpreted to be the result of deficient oral hygiene coupled with a softer and more refined diet in the high-status population, particularly males. Whereas elite males' subsistence was apparently based more on animal proteins and relatively soft and refined foods, a diet relying on carbohydrates may account for the observed rate of oral pathologies in elite females and commoners.     

Looking the part: social status cues shape race perception

It is commonly believed that race is perceived through another's facial features, such as skin color. In the present research, we demonstrate that cues to social status that often surround a face systematically change the perception of its race. Participants categorized the race of faces that varied along White-Black morph continua and that were presented with high-status or low-status attire. Low-status attire increased the likelihood of categorization as Black, whereas high-status attire increased the likelihood of categorization as White; and this influence grew stronger as race became more ambiguous (Experiment 1). When faces with high-status attire were categorized as Black or faces with low-status attire were categorized as White, participants' hand movements nevertheless revealed a simultaneous attraction to select the other race-category response (stereotypically tied to the status cue) before arriving at a final categorization. Further, this attraction effect grew as race became more ambiguous (Experiment 2). Computational simulations then demonstrated that these effects may be accounted for by a neurally plausible person categorization system, in which contextual cues come to trigger stereotypes that in turn influence race perception. Together, the findings show how stereotypes interact with physical cues to shape person categorization, and suggest that social and contextual factors guide the perception of race.     

Intergroup Contact Effects via Ingroup Distancing among Majority and Minority Groups: Moderation by Social Dominance Orientation

Five studies tested whether intergroup contact reduces negative outgroup attitudes through a process of ingroup distancing. Based on the deprovincialization hypothesis and Social Dominance Theory, we hypothesized that the indirect effect of cross-group friendship on outgroup attitudes via reduced ingroup identification is moderated by individuals’ Social Dominance Orientation (SDO), and occurs only for members of high status majority groups. We tested these predictions in three different intergroup contexts, involving conflictual relations between social groups in Germany (Study 1; N = 150; longitudinal Study 2: N = 753), Northern Ireland (Study 3: N = 160; Study 4: N = 1,948), and England (Study 5; N = 594). Cross-group friendship was associated with reduced ingroup identification and the link between reduced ingroup identification and improved outgroup attitudes was moderated by SDO (the indirect effect of cross-group friendship on outgroup attitudes via reduced ingroup only occurred for individuals scoring high, but not low, in SDO). Although there was a consistent moderating effect of SDO in high-status majority groups (Studies 1–5), but not low-status minority groups (Studies 3, 4, and 5), the interaction by SDO was not reliably stronger in high- than low-status groups. Findings are discussed in terms of better understanding deprovincialization effects of contact.     

Directional migration in the Hindu castes: inferences from mitochondrial, autosomal and Y-chromosomal data

Genetic, ethnographic, and historical evidence suggests that the Hindu castes have been highly endogamous for several thousand years and that, when movement between castes does occur, it typically consists of females joining castes of higher social status. However, little is known about migration rates in these populations or the extent to which migration occurs between caste groups of low, middle, and high social status. To investigate these aspects of migration, we analyzed the largest collection of genetic markers collected to date in Hindu caste populations. These data included 45 newly typed autosomal short tandem repeat polymorphisms (STRPs), 411 bp of mitochondrial DNA sequence, and 43 Y-chromosomal single-nucleotide polymorphisms that were assayed in more than 200 individuals of known caste status sampled in Andrah Pradesh, in South India. Application of recently developed likelihood-based analyses to this dataset enabled us to obtain genetically derived estimates of intercaste migration rates. STRPs indicated migration rates of 1–2% per generation between high-, middle-, and low-status caste groups. We also found support for the hypothesis that rates of gene flow differ between maternally and paternally inherited genes. Migration rates were substantially higher in maternally than in paternally inherited markers. In addition, while prevailing patterns of migration involved movement between castes of similar rank, paternally inherited markers in the low-status castes were most likely to move into high-status castes. Our findings support earlier evidence that the caste system has been a significant, long-term source of population structuring in South Indian Hindu populations, and that patterns of migration differ between males and females.     

Adolescents' Psychosocial Maturity,Problem Behavior,and Subjective Age: In Search of the Adultoid

The objectives of this study were to seek empirical confirmation for the existence of a group of adolescents whose maturity status could be labeled as adultoid, and to identify psychosocial correlates of adolescents' maturity status. Cluster analysis of questionnaire data from 209 predominantly White adolescents (10-18 years old) in working- and middle-class 2-parent families identified 3 maturity status groups: adultoids (low psychosocial maturity, high problem behavior, older subjective age); matures (high psychosocial maturity, low problem behavior, slightly older subjective age); and immatures (low psychosocial maturity, low problem behavior, young subjective age). Regressions revealed that several adolescent- and mother-reported variables were linked to maturity status. Relative to their mature and immature counterparts, adultoid adolescents exhibited more advanced physical maturity, earlier expectations for attaining privileges, higher social involvement, and in boys, higher mother-adolescent conflict. Adultoid adolescents do exist, and they differ from mature and immature adolescents in important ways. These results have implications for understanding the diversity in adolescents' levels of maturity.     

Food-Sharing Networks in Lamalera, Indonesia: Status, Sharing, and Signaling

Costly signaling has been proposed as a possible mechanism to explain food sharing in foraging populations. This sharing-as-signaling hypothesis predicts an association between sharing and status. Using exponential random graph modeling (ERGM), this prediction is tested on a social network of between-household food-sharing relationships in the fishing and sea-hunting village of Lamalera, Indonesia. Previous analyses (Nolin 2010) have shown that most sharing in Lamalera is consistent with reciprocal altruism. The question addressed here is whether any additional variation may be explained as sharing-as-signaling by high-status households. The results show that high-status households both give and receive more than other households, a pattern more consistent with reciprocal altruism than costly signaling. However, once the propensity to reciprocate and household productivity are controlled, households of men holding leadership positions show greater odds of unreciprocated giving when compared to households of non-leaders. This pattern of excessive giving by leaders is consistent with the sharing-as-signaling hypothesis. Wealthy households show the opposite pattern, giving less and receiving more than other households. These households may reciprocate in a currency other than food or their wealth may attract favor-seeking behavior from others. Overall, status covariates explain little variation in the sharing network as a whole, and much of the sharing observed by high-status households is best explained by the same factors that explain sharing by other households. This pattern suggests that multiple mechanisms may operate simultaneously to promote sharing in Lamalera and that signaling may motivate some sharing by some individuals even within sharing regimes primarily maintained by other mechanisms.     

食蟹猴取食位置偏好及改变的行为学研究

正偏好行为被认为是研究大脑半球功能偏侧性调控表达的一种预测指标(Elias et al.,1998)。偏好行为与大脑解剖结构和功能不对称之间关系的研究表明人类明显偏爱使用右手,是由大脑左半球控制(Zhao et al.,2010;崔媛媛,2012;付卫伟,2012),而手偏好正是大脑皮层结构和功能不对称最基本的行为表现,是大脑半球特化的一个行为标     

Reconstructing relationships among mortality, status, and gender at the Medieval Gilbertine Priory of St. Andrew, Fishergate, York

The varied relationships among status, gender, and mortality are complex, historically produced phenomena that shape people's lives and deaths in socially meaningful ways. Paleodemographic analysis coupled with acute sensitivity to site-specific context has the potential to move us toward a greater understanding of these experiences in the past. After considering the potential effects of migration and fertility on the age-at-death profiles of adult individuals interred at the Gilbertine Priory of St. Andrew, Fishergate, York (n = 200), it is asserted that these profiles primarily reveal expected and unexpected relationships among status, gender, and mortality in this Medieval context. Collectively, the long lives of religious-status males compared to other composite and gendered status groups suggest that they experienced a relatively comfortable existence despite periodic complaints of destitution. The postulated demographic advantage of high-status males did not materialize in the analysis, and a reevaluation of the skeletal evidence indicates that nearly 20% of these individuals died violently. Unexpectedly, moderate-status females shared a mortality profile similar to that of religious-status males and retained a demographic advantage over all other secular status groups. In contrast to the experiences of moderate-status females, low-status females had, on average, the shortest lives at St. Andrew's. This pattern is intimately linked to their restriction from crucial social and economic resources, and provides further evidence of their marginalization in York's wage-labor economy. Overall, these relationships suggest that traditional, highly stratified and gendered notions of Medieval status and mortality are not adequate for understanding the intricacies of everyday life and death at St. Andrew's.     

Both Loved and Feared: Third Party Punishers Are Viewed as Formidable and Likeable,but These Reputational Benefits May Only Be Open to Dominant Individuals

Third party punishment can be evolutionarily stable if there is heterogeneity in the cost of punishment or if punishers receive a reputational benefit from their actions. A dominant position might allow some individuals to punish at a lower cost than others and by doing so access these reputational benefits. Three vignette-based studies measured participants'' judgements of a third party punisher in comparison to those exhibiting other aggressive/dominant behaviours (Study 1), when there was variation in the success of punishment (Study 2), and variation in the status of the punisher and the type of punishment used (Study 3). Third party punishers were judged to be more likeable than (but equally dominant as) those who engaged in other types of dominant behaviour (Study 1), were judged to be equally likeable and dominant whether their intervention succeeded or failed (Study 2), and participants believed that only a dominant punisher could intervene successfully (regardless of whether punishment was violent or non-violent) and that subordinate punishers would face a higher risk of retaliation (Study 3). The results suggest that dominance can dramatically reduce the cost of punishment, and that while individuals can gain a great deal of reputational benefit from engaging in third party punishment, these benefits are only open to dominant individuals. Taking the status of punishers into account may therefore help explain the evolution of third party punishment.     

Age- and dominance-related variation in feeding time among free-ranging female rhesus monkeys

Observations were made on the feeding behavior of 34 lactating rhesus females (Macaca mulatta) at Tughlaqabad, India. Consistent interindividual differences in feeding times were found and two sources of this variation were identified. Time spent feeding was found to decline with female age; rhesus mothers 4–6 years old spent over 40% more time feeding than did females 11–15 years of age. When the animals were divided into high- and low-status groups, dominance was also found to relate to individual feeding times; high-status females spent more time feeding that did low-status females, but this difference was evident only when the effect of female age was held constant. The age effect is probably an expression of age-related variation in nutritional requirements due to growth in the youngest subject and, perhaps, a declining basal metabolic rate in the oldest. We speculate that the comparatively weak dominance effect is due less to the aggressive interruption of feeding bouts than it is to a presumed greater vigilance on the part of subordinant mothers in monitoring their infants' whereabouts.     

Implicit signals in small group settings and their impact on the expression of cognitive capacity and associated brain responses

Measures of intelligence, when broadcast, serve as salient signals of social status, which may be used to unjustly reinforce low-status stereotypes about out-groups' cultural norms. Herein, we investigate neurobehavioural signals manifest in small (n = 5) groups using functional magnetic resonance imaging and a 'ranked group IQ task' where implicit signals of social status are broadcast and differentiate individuals based on their expression of cognitive capacity. We report an initial overall decrease in the expression of cognitive capacity in the small group setting. However, the environment of the 'ranked group IQ task' eventually stratifies the population into two groups ('high performers', HP and 'low performers', LP) identifiable based on changes in estimated intelligence quotient and brain responses in the amygdala and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. In addition, we demonstrate signals in the nucleus accumbens consistent with prediction errors in expected changes in status regardless of group membership. Our results suggest that individuals express diminished cognitive capacity in small groups, an effect that is exacerbated by perceived lower status within the group and correlated with specific neurobehavioural responses. The impact these reactions have on intergroup divisions and conflict resolution requires further investigation, but suggests that low-status groups may develop diminished capacity to mitigate conflict using non-violent means.     

Inferring Social Status and Rich Club Effects in Enterprise Communication Networks

Social status, defined as the relative rank or position that an individual holds in a social hierarchy, is known to be among the most important motivating forces in social behaviors. In this paper, we consider the notion of status from the perspective of a position or title held by a person in an enterprise. We study the intersection of social status and social networks in an enterprise. We study whether enterprise communication logs can help reveal how social interactions and individual status manifest themselves in social networks. To that end, we use two enterprise datasets with three communication channels — voice call, short message, and email — to demonstrate the social-behavioral differences among individuals with different status. We have several interesting findings and based on these findings we also develop a model to predict social status. On the individual level, high-status individuals are more likely to be spanned as structural holes by linking to people in parts of the enterprise networks that are otherwise not well connected to one another. On the community level, the principle of homophily, social balance and clique theory generally indicate a “rich club” maintained by high-status individuals, in the sense that this community is much more connected, balanced and dense. Our model can predict social status of individuals with 93% accuracy.     

Implicit associations with social status: the effects of relationship involvement

The study tested the proposition that relationship involvement influences the implicit responses of women to high- and low-status professions. It was hypothesized that when a high-involvement context was primed, women would have more positive implicit associations with high-status occupations than when a low-involvement context was primed. In contrast, when a high-involvement context was primed, women would have more negative associations with low-status occupations than when a low-involvement context was primed. To test the hypothesis, 123 female participants received a high or low relationship involvement prime. Then the participants completed a single category implicit associations test designed to measure the participants' associations with either high- or low-status occupations. As predicted, the relationship involvement prime influenced the positivity of associations made with high- and low-status occupations. The study pointed to the possibility that persons possess evolutionary-based implicit associations.