Social Status and Hierarchy

These flashcards cover key concepts related to social status, dominance, prestige, and their evolutionary and developmental roots.

What does Agnes Callard define status as?

How much value other people accord you.

What does Michael Gazzaniga say people think about in the morning?

Status and their relation to their peers.

What is the 'default mode network'?

The regions of the brain that are active when people think about their social lives and how they are evaluated.

How does Tania Reynolds define evolutionary psychology?

Examining how the mind has been shaped to solve recurring problems faced by human ancestors.

What is the currency of evolution?

Offspring.

Instead of survival, what is reproduction associated with?

The attainment of attracting romantic partners, survival, and reproduction.

Do modern status and prestige rely more on materialism or relationships?

Relationships.

What are the two different facets of status?

Dominance and Prestige.

Dominance in humans is associated with what characteristics?

Narcissism, aggression, disagreeableness.

Fill in the blank: is conferred to people for what they can do for you.

Prestige

How do chimps establish dominance hierarchies?

They have an established social rank, a social hierarchy. They usually have an alpha chimp. He's not necessarily the strongest chimp, but he can be physically aggressive

Do hierarchies keep the peace?

Yes, hierarchies are a source of information for animals.

How can subordinates bargain within a Dominance Hierarchy?

Withholding benefits, grooming, concealing food, and relinquishing cooperation when costs are low.

How does Jessica Tracy describe dominant people?

Dominant people pay for their less kindly route to status by incurring the dislike and even hatred of their fellow group members.

How do humans attain prestige?

By being skillful and knowledgeable in hunting, warfare, navigation, storytelling, or identifying sources of critical resources.

What characteristics do prominent individuals often display?

Humility and self-effacement to avoid negative attention or envy.

What are status-leveling mechanisms?

Mechanisms such that people are roughly equal in social status, that one person doesn't rise too high above the others.

How did weapon invention help create egalitarian hunter-gatherer communities?

People could inflict violence on others, on other human beings, with little cost to themselves.

What could early humans do thanks to the development of a large brain and cognitive and linguistic capacities

Form conspiracies, rumors, gossip, and innuendo.

What is Richard Wrangham's idea?

Self-domestication hypothesis, coalitionary proactive aggression.

Are humans characterized by Reactive or Proactive Coalition Aggression?

Proactive. Humans, as I mentioned, through this process of self-domestication, we weeded out or eliminated those hot-tempered humans, primarily males, which led to us being more docile among our peer groups.

How does power differ from status?

Power is control over access to resources, while status is the respect or prestige one holds.

What sex wants more power than the other?

Men want power more than women do

Are 5-year-old children selective copiers?

Yes, 5-year-old children are selective copiers. If you compare how likely they are to imitate a head teacher versus someone who is equally familiar, same age and gender, maybe a lower-ranking teacher within the school system, children are more likely to imitate the head teacher.

How do researchers test what goes on in the minds of an Infant?

Looking time studies, Essentially, this is intuitive that you'll habituate to something if you see it repeatedly. When a novel object appears in your visual field, you'll stare at it.

Is sociometric status a better predictor than socioeconomic status for happiness?

Yes, To me, one of the most interesting findings over the last, it must have been 10 or 12 years now, is that sociometric status is a stronger predictor than socioeconomic status for happiness and well-being and self-esteem.

What makes a human motive fundamental?

It shapes long-term health and well-being, induces a wide range of goal-directed behavior, is nonderivative, and is universal across cultures and individuals.

What is a three-pen study?

Researchers monitored the branch of finance firm. They realized men added more pens to their desk than others to appear higher in ranking.

What does the term respect carry?

More respectful connotations.

In individualistic cultures, what ability do people tend to overestimate?

Their ability to lead.

Is overconfidence wise?

Yes, In some regard, is probably wise. If you want to bolster your status, believing you can do something can often help you to actually do it.

What does the Cyberball game test?

The Cyberball game is to induce social discomfort in participants. You want to get them to feel excluded.

Who created the Cyberball game?

Kip Williams

Give some examples of the term Strong Situation:

A red light. This is a strong situation. Regardless of your personality traits and all these other measures, almost everyone will stop at a red light.

What is a psychological adaptation?

It's relevant to status, but it doesn't actually monitor status. Belonging and status are tightly linked, but they're not the same thing.

Sociometer vs Hierometer?

Hierometer tracks status and sociometer tracks inclusion.

What is a difference between Gatsby and Nick Carraway?

Gatsby chasing status where Carraway is about community

Do competence and morality form people's impression?

Yes, Collectively, these two traits, your moral character and your competence, seem to encompass the bulk of how we form our impressions of other people.

Give an example of male-directed Insult:

Worthless, weak, poor, etc.