How Easily Does a Social Difference Become a Status Distinction? Gender Matters

Abstract

Are people quick to adopt status beliefs about a social difference that lead them to treat others unequally? In a test of status construction theory, two experiments show that men and women form equally strong status beliefs from only two encounters with others. Men act powerfully on these new beliefs in their next encounters with others but women do not, possibly because women face greater social risks for acting on ambiguous status advantages. Women are just as likely as men, however, to treat someone unequally on the basis of an established status distinction. This suggests that men are first movers in the emergence of status distinctions, but women eventually adopt the distinctions as well. Our results show that people readily transform social differences into status distinctions-distinctions that act as formidable forces of inequality.

Why Do Nominal Characteristics Acquire Status Value? A Minimal Explanation for Status Construction

“…Explaining the emergence of consensual status beliefs has been an active area of theoretical (Ridgeway and Balkwell 1997;Webster and Hysom 1998;Jasso 2001) as well as empirical research (Ridgeway et al 1998;Ridgeway and Erickson 2000;Ridgeway et al 2009) since Ridgeway's (1991) initial formulation of status construction theory. Yet, the fact that mechanisms of status belief diffusion and status belief loss are logically sufficient to account for a tendency toward consensual status beliefs remained unrecognized.…”

The Shadow of Indebtedness: Bridewealth and Norms Constraining Female Reproductive Autonomy

“…Unfortunately, survey data on bridewealth are lacking-surveys typically do not include bridewealth measures. In the United States, lab experiments and population-based survey experiments are increasingly a valuable methodological tool (see, e.g., Muntz 2011;Ridgeway et al 2009). This article demonstrates the potential utility of experimental methods for studying gender dynamics in Africa.…”

In female supervisors male subordinates trust!? An experiment on supervisor and subordinate gender and the perceptions of tight control

“…Among a variety of social roles, the gender role is a powerful concept that affects people's beliefs about men and women (e.g. Eagly and Karau 2002;Ridgeway et al 2009). These beliefs are both descriptive and prescriptive in the sense that they affect how we expect men and women to behave and how we mean they ought to behave (Eagly and Karau 2002), and make gender roles very pervasive in society.…”

“…Social differences (e.g. gender) turn into status beliefs and hierarchies instantly and locally, and diffuse quickly (Ridgeway and Balkwell 1997;Ridgeway et al 2009). Gender roles thus have the potential to be an important concept that affect how control in the supervisor-subordinate dyad is perceived, acted upon and made sense of, depending on the gender composition of the relationship.…”