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Higher Status in Group

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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

Synonyms

Dominance; Informal leadership; Power; Prestige; Social hierarchy; Social rank; Social status; Sociometric status

Definition

Social status refers to differential degrees of social influence and rank in relation to other group members. This definition is used in the current entry. Note, however, that variations in definition exist across disciplines (and sometimes subfields): in some areas of research, for instance, social status is used to describe freely conferred deference or prestige, in contrast to the use of the term here to refer to more general influence that may or may not be associated with respect or prestige.

Introduction

From the most egalitarian societies to the formal organization of contemporary businesses, human groups are inherently structured by social hierarchy (Eibl-Eibesfeldt 2017; Mazur 1985; Von Rueden 2014). That is, differentiation in social rank – defined as relative position within a social hierarchy based on social influence and agency (Báles et...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany

    Daniel Redhead

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL, USA

    Joey T. Cheng

  3. Department of Psychology, University of Essex, Colchester, UK

    Rick O’Gorman

Authors
  1. Daniel Redhead
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  2. Joey T. Cheng
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  3. Rick O’Gorman
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Daniel Redhead .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  2. Rochester, MI, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA

    Kevin Kniffin

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Redhead, D., Cheng, J.T., O’Gorman, R. (2019). Higher Status in Group. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3495-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3495-1

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