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Status, Power, and Intergroup Relations: The Personal Is the Societal

Author(s): Fiske, Susan T.; Dupree, Cydney H.; Nicolas, Gandalf; Swencionis, Jillian K.

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Abstract: Hierarchies in the correlated forms of power (resources) and status (prestige) are constants that organize human societies. This article reviews relevant social psychological literature and identifies several converging results concerning power and status. Whether rank is chronically possessed or temporarily embodied, higher ranks create psychological distance from others, allow agency by the higher ranked, and exact deference from the lower ranked. Beliefs that status entails competence are essentially universal. Interpersonal interactions create warmth-competence compensatory tradeoffs. Along with societal structures (enduring inequality), these tradeoffs reinforce status-competence beliefs. Race, class, and gender further illustrate these dynamics. Although status systems are resilient, they can shift, and understanding those change processes is an important direction for future research, as global demographic changes disrupt existing hierarchies.
Publication Date: Oct-2016
Citation: Fiske, Susan T., Dupree, Cydney H., Nicolas, Gandalf, Swencionis, Jillian K. (2016). Status, power, and intergroup relations: the personal is the societal. Current Opinion in Psychology, 11 (44 - 48). doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2016.05.012
DOI: doi:10.1016/j.copsyc.2016.05.012
ISSN: 2352-250X
Pages: 44 - 48
Type of Material: Journal Article
Journal/Proceeding Title: Current Opinion in Psychology
Version: Author's manuscript



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