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When Do Low Status Individuals Accept Less? The Interaction between Self- and Other-Status during Resource
Philip R Blue1, Jie Hu1, Xueying Wang1
1Center for Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Peking UniversityBeijing, China; School of Psychological and Cognitive Sciences, Peking UniversityBeijing, China.
Frontiers in Psychology
|November 10, 2016
Summary
Social status significantly impacts resource distribution decisions. Individuals with lower social status are more accepting of low offers and more influenced by others' status during resource distribution.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Behavioral Economics
- Game Theory
Background:
- Social status is a key factor in real-world resource distribution.
- The interplay between self-status and other-status in influencing responses to resource distribution remains unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate how dynamically manipulated social status (self and other) affects responses in the ultimatum game (UG).
- To understand the differential impact of social status on resource distribution decisions.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments were conducted using the ultimatum game (UG).
- Social status was manipulated dynamically, either between-participants (Experiment 1) or within-subjects (Experiment 2), using a rank-inducing task.
- Participants acted as recipients responding to offers from proposers of known social status.
Main Results:
- Both self-status and other-status significantly influenced UG offer acceptance.
- Participants were more likely to accept low offers from high-status proposers compared to low-status proposers.
- This effect was more pronounced for low-status participants, indicating a greater sensitivity to other-status considerations.
Conclusions:
- Individuals in lower social status are more inclined to accept unfavorable resource distribution offers.
- Lower-status individuals demonstrate heightened sensitivity to the social status of others when making distribution decisions.
- Findings highlight the significant role of social hierarchy in shaping economic behavior and resource allocation.
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