scholarly journals Experimental Evidence That Low Social Status Is Most Toxic to Well-Being When Internalized

2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 157-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benita Jackson ◽  
Laura Smart Richman ◽  
Onawa LaBelle ◽  
Madeleine S. Lempereur ◽  
Jean M. Twenge
2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 506-527
Author(s):  
Nathan P Kalmoe ◽  
Raymond J Pingree ◽  
Brian Watson ◽  
Mingxiao Sui ◽  
Joshua Darr ◽  
...  

Abstract Publics hold chief executives uniquely responsible for national well-being, and they learn about national conditions through news. But when news disproportionately covers problems, what happens to democratic accountability? Here, we experimentally test how leader approval changes when crime loses prominence in news for a sustained period. We create an online news environment coding real news in real time, then experimentally filter news for nationally diverse U.S. panelists over 1 week. We find causal evidence that reducing crime news raises presidential approval and depresses problem importance evaluations for crime. No other leaders are credited, and reducing all problems produces no further gains. These effects persist well after exposure but dissipate within a week. We conclude with broad implications for journalism and democratic judgment.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hongsheng Chen ◽  
Zhenjun Zhu

Abstract BackgroundChina is becoming an aging society. The emotional health of the elderly is gaining importance. Social trust is an important factor affecting emotional health, but existing studies have rarely considered the various effects of different types of social trust on rural elderly emotional health. Few studies have analysed the role of subjective well-being and subjective social status in the relationship between social trust and elderly emotional health.MethodsUsing the data of the China Labor-force Dynamics Survey 2016 (CLDS 2016) and regression models, this study selected 2084 rural respondents aged 60 years and above to analyse the impact of social trust on their emotional health. Social trust was divided into three categories: trust in family members, trust in friends, and trust in neighbours. This study also examined the mediating and moderating effects of subjective well-being and subjective social status on the relationship between social trust and emotional health.ResultsTrust in family members was significantly and positively associated with emotional health (coefficient=0.194, P<0.01) and subjective well-being (coefficient=0.177, P<0.01). Trust in friends was significantly and positively associated with emotional health and subjective well-being (coefficient=0.097, P<0.01; coefficient=0.174, P<0.01, respectively). Trust in neighbours was significantly and positively associated with emotional health and subjective well-being (coefficient=0.088, P<0.01; coefficient=0.177, P<0.01; respectively). Subjective well-being effectively reduced the impact of social trust in family, friends, and neighbours on the emotional health of the elderly by 0.023, 0.022, and 0.023, respectively. Trust in friends and neighbours significantly and positively affected respondents’ subjective social status (coefficient=0.120, P<0.05; coefficient=0.090, P<0.10; respectively). Subjective social status effectively reduced the impact of social trust in friends and neighbours on the emotional health of the elderly both by 0.004. The positive relationship between trust in family members and emotional health is weakened by subjective well-being.ConclusionsSocial trust, especially family relationships, play an important role in maintaining the emotional health of the rural elderly. In response to population ageing, more social policies must be introduced to care for the rural elderly and help them lead a happy and satisfactory life.


Gerontology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (6) ◽  
pp. 576-588
Author(s):  
Deirdre A. Robertson ◽  
David Weiss

Background: Social status is the standing of a person or group in the social hierarchy, and is perceived to change across the life span from low social status in early life, to peak in midlife, and to a decline thereafter. As threats to subjective social status are known to be detrimental to individuals’ health, it is important to better understand how older adults perceive themselves and others in terms of age-related social status. Objective: We examined status ambivalence – the potential discrepancy between how older adults’ perceive social status for themselves compared to older adults in general. Method: Study 1 used qualitative data from 37 semi-structured interviews with older adults to assess perceptions of social status. Study 2 used quantitative survey data from 114 older adults who completed explicit and implicit measures of social status. Results: Study 1 (n = 37, meanage = 71.72, SDage = 5.69; 81.1% women) provided preliminary evidence for status ambivalence such that older adults reported unequivocal low social status for other older adults but a more ambivalent perception of their own social status. Study 2 (n = 114, meanage = 64.32, SDage = 8.98, 57.9% women) compared implicit and explicit measures of social status revealing that older adults consistently perceive older adults to have low social status but again show a more ambivalent perception of their own social status. Conclusion: We discuss status ambivalence as a potential protective mechanism in the context of negative societal perceptions of age-related social status that may be important for well-being in later life.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silvia Filippi ◽  
Caterina Suitner ◽  
Bruno Gabriel Salvador Casara ◽  
Davide Pirrone ◽  
Mara A. Yerkes

Work-Life Balance (WLB) is recognized as a fundamental part of people’s well-being and prioritized in European policy making. Until recently, little attention was given to the role of economic inequality in people's inferences of WLB. In Study 1, we experimentally tested and confirmed a) the effect of economic inequality on WLB, and b) the role of status anxiety in mediating this relationship. In Study 2, we provided a replication and advancement of Study 1 by manipulating socioeconomic class in addition to economic inequality. Results showed that in the inequality condition, people expected less WLB through a partial mediation of status anxiety and competitiveness. We also found that class mattered, with economic inequality mainly affecting participants in the low-class condition. In sum, economic inequality enhanced participants’ competitiveness and concern about their social status, which in turn affected WLB. This demonstrates the need for policies promoting WLB in those countries characterized by high inequality.


Author(s):  
Lauren A. Winkler ◽  
Clark Spencer Larsen ◽  
Victor D. Thompson ◽  
Paul W. Sciulli ◽  
Dale L. Hutchinson ◽  
...  

Winkler and colleagues investigate the relationship between social status and well-being among the Guale from St. Catherines Island in Spanish Florida (A.D. 1607–1680). Specifically, they examine stress through dental caries, linear enamel hypoplasias, tooth size, and long bone length. Their analysis of mortuary data identifies postcontact social status variation on the basis of funerary offerings and proximity to the altar, and they integrate ethnohistorical evidence to enrich their interpretations. While Winkler and colleagues do not find any direct relationship between stress markers and mortuary offerings, there were spatial relationships between involving well-being and proximity (or distance) from the altar. While the study of colonialism in Spanish Florida has a long history, this work at St. Catherines Island represents new directions involving the spatial dimensions of mortuary and skeletal data on an intracemetery level. Winkler and colleagues conclude with discussions about their findings within the context of Spanish colonialism in Spanish Florida and the implications for bioarchaeology of colonialism.


AJS Review ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 38 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Watts Belser

Food and feasting narratives illuminate the social politics of disaster in the Babylonian Talmud's lengthiest account of the destruction of Jerusalem (Bavli Gittin 55b–58a). Key moments in this sugya center around food: the shame of Bar Kamẓa at a feast sparks his eventual betrayal of the Jews, the tale of Marta bat Boethus recounts the starvation of the wealthiest woman in Jerusalem, and Caesar destroys Tur Malka in retaliation for an opulent banquet. This article contextualizes these rabbinic narratives within the social politics of Roman and Sasanian banquet culture, while also parsing the intersections of gender, class, and social status in these disaster tales. Through its critical representation of high-class oblivion, the sugya calls attention to the ethical cost of elite status by highlighting the physical and moral dangers of social privilege. Its stories of luxurious eating emphasize how corrosive concerns about status and shame often lead elites to protect their private interests by sacrificing the well-being of the broader community. Its feasting narratives assert that wealth, luxury, and social privilege distance elites from the awareness of suffering in their midst.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document