Although we don’t yet know the full extent to which status seeking contributes to long-term health and well-being, these findings point towards some intriguing possibilities. Status seeking may play an important, yet largely invisible, role in determining our choices. When we’re plagued with painful feelings of low status, our judgment may become clouded. We may focus more on feeling better in the moment than on how our behavior will affect us in the long-run. Over time, a perpetual need for more status could lead us towards chronic problems. For example, the link between status and portion size may help explain why obesity has increased most rapidly amongst Americans who are underprivileged and poorer. Paradoxically, groups and individuals who often feel powerless might be the most likely to suffer the ill effects of status seeking.
The good news is that by manipulating what signals high status, we might be able to influence people to make better choices. For example, Dubois and his colleagues ran a study where they told people that choosing smaller portion sizes is actually a sign of higher status. Under these conditions, people chose smaller appetizers to eat. The connection between seeking status and making self-defeating choices is not inescapable.
Are you a scientist who specializes in neuroscience, cognitive science, or psychology? And have you read a recent peer-reviewed paper that you would like to write about? Please send suggestions to Mind Matters editor Gareth Cook, a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist at the Boston Globe. He can be reached at garethideas AT gmail.com or Twitter @garethideas.
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6 Comments
Add Comment"Past research has found that African-Americans are often charged more than other groups for the same products and services."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisCan you cite this research?
This might help clarify:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://tinyurl.com/7auaa49
The good news is everyone is the same race when they purchase online.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe bad news is- not for ever; I'm sure those who still allow facebook to steal their lives will soon have their race, age, etc provided to any online retailer who wants it the moment you log on to their web-store.
Interesting.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI've always thought people who cared about status were morons.
What does that say about me?
So now we know why sales clerks and waiters act snooty.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhen my mother went shopping, she would, in front of the sales clerk, finger various parts of the product, frown and give the clerk a disapproving look. The price would drop. Of course my mother was not being arbitrary. She could, for instance, tell the difference between a hand-sewn button hole and a machine sewn one, and knew how the difference affected price. She knew what features said luxury and which said imitation luxury. She just wanted the imitation but at a lower price. It looks like her schtick lowered the clerk's status and so the clerk was willing to give a big discount. All I knew was that it worked. I didn't know why.
Me, I just go for cheap, mostly, but not always, because sometimes cheap just doesn't work.
Interesting. I wonder if any studies exists about the drop in "performance" if reminded of low status.
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