Social Status

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Recommended: Impact of social class

Social status plays a critical controlling social behavior. Waytz (2009) quotes economist John Harsanyi as arguing that “apart from economic payoffs, social status seems to be the most important incentive and motivating force of social behavior.” Status operates at the society level, imposing a certain cultural set of ideas and beliefs regarding acceptable behavior. However, it also operates at the personal level, impacting upon the way each person deals with his or her perceived social status, how well he or she compensates in any given social situation, and consequently what rewards or sanctions are given to the person as a result of interactions with others. Therefore, social status impact upon the mental, social, and economic well-being of every person. Specifically, Waytz claims that, when a person feels low social status, he or she tends to act in ways that negate efforts to increase status. In this brief paper, I will relay the results of interviews conducted with two people of very different perceived social status conditions, in order to provide evidence of the impor...

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