scholarly journals A status-seeking account of psychological entitlement

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Lange ◽  
Liz Redford ◽  
Jan Crusius
Keyword(s):  
Indirect Effects ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
Status Attainment ◽  
High Status ◽  
Total N ◽  
Psychological Entitlement ◽  
Malicious Envy ◽  
Affective Processes ◽  
Status Seeking

We propose that people high in entitlement are characterized by motivation to attain status. Five studies (total N = 2,372) support that entitlement promotes motivation to seek status. This motivation, in turn, relates to affective processes when facing upward comparisons and contributes to status attainment. Specifically, entitlement fostered prestige and dominance motivation. These, in turn, predicted greater benign and malicious envy, respectively, when encountering high-status others. The indirect effects occurred when entitlement was measured (Studies 1A and 1B) and manipulated (Study 2A and 2B). Finally, entitlement related to status attainment, yet not always in line with more entitled people’s motivation. Although they ascribed themselves both more prestige and dominance, others ascribed them only more dominance, yet less prestige (Studies 3A, 3B, and 3C). These findings suggest that a status-seeking account offers important insights into the complexities of entitled behavior and its social consequences.

scholarly journals The Evil Queen's Dilemma: Linking Narcissistic Admiration and Rivalry to Benign and Malicious Envy

2016 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Lange ◽  
Jan Crusius ◽  
Birk Hagemeyer
Keyword(s):  
Social Consequences ◽  
Fear Of Failure ◽  
Grandiose Narcissism ◽  
Improve Performance ◽  
Motivational Orientations ◽  
Personality Psychology ◽  
Malicious Envy ◽  
Conflicting Evidence ◽  
Emotional Appraisal ◽  
Benign Envy

It is widely assumed that narcissists are envious. Nevertheless, evidence supporting this claim has remained elusive. In five studies (N = 1,225), we disentangle how grandiose narcissism predicts divergent envious inclinations. Specific facets of narcissism and forms of envy shared the same underlying motivational orientations (Study 1) and distinctively related to each other (Studies 1 to 5) via differences in emotional appraisal (Study 4). Moreover, envy was linked to opposing social consequences of different narcissism facets (Study 5). Specifically, hope for success related to narcissistic admiration, predicting benign envy, which entails the motivation to improve performance, translating into the ascription of social potency by the self and others. In contrast, fear of failure related to narcissistic rivalry, predicting malicious envy, which entails hostility, translating into the ascription of a proneness for social conflict by others. These results converged with envy measured as a trait (Studies 1 and 5) or state in recall tasks (Studies 2 and 4) and as response to an upward standard in the situation (Study 3). The findings provide important insights into narcissists‘ emotional complexities, integrate prior isolated and conflicting evidence, and open up new avenues for research on narcissism and envy. Copyright © 2016 European Association of Personality Psychology

From Help to Harm: Increases in Status, Perceived Underreciprocation, and the Consequences for Access to Strategic Help and Social Undermining Among Female, Racial Minority, and White Male Top Managers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gareth D. Keeves ◽  
James D. Westphal
Keyword(s):  
Social Exchange ◽  
White Male ◽  
Racial Minority ◽  
Systematic Difference ◽  
Social Consequences ◽  
High Status ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Corporate Leadership ◽  
Social Undermining ◽  
The Social

This paper explores how social psychological biases impede the social exchange relations of executives who ascend to high-status corporate leadership positions. We theorize that a combination of self-serving attribution biases among executives who gain status and egocentric biases of their prior benefactors cause a systematic difference in perceptions about the relative importance of that help to the beneficiary’s success. This leads to the perception among prior benefactors that the high-status executives have not adequately reciprocated their help. We then extend this argument to explain why perceptions of underreciprocation are heightened when the high-status executive is a racial minority or a woman but reduced when the prior benefactor is a racial minority or a woman. The final element of our theoretical framework examines the social consequences of perceived underreciprocation for corporate leaders. We suggest that the high-status leaders’ access to strategic help is reduced, and they may become the target of social undermining that can damage their broader reputation. The findings support our social psychological perspective on social exchange in corporate leadership, revealing how and why executives who have ascended to high-status positions not only may encounter difficulty obtaining assistance from fellow leaders but also may experience adverse reversals in their social exchange ties such that managers who previously aided them engage in socially harmful behavior toward them.

The Possession of High Status Strengthens the Status Motive

2020 ◽  
Vol 46 (12) ◽  
pp. 1712-1723
Author(s):  
Cameron Anderson ◽  
John Angus D. Hildreth ◽  
Daron L. Sharps
Keyword(s):  
Working Class ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Upper Class ◽  
High Status ◽  
Total N ◽  
The Status ◽  
Over Time

The current research tested whether the possession of high status, compared with the possession of low status, makes individuals desire having high status even more. Five studies (total N = 6,426), four of which were preregistered, supported this hypothesis. Individuals with higher status in their social groups or who were randomly assigned to a high-status condition were more motivated to have high status than were individuals with low status. Furthermore, upper-class individuals had a stronger status motive than working-class individuals, in part, due to their high status. High-status individuals had a stronger status motive, in part, because they were more confident in their ability to achieve (or retain) high status, but not because of other possible mechanisms (e.g., task self-efficacy). These findings provide a possible explanation for why status hierarchies are so stable and why inequality rises in social collectives over time.

scholarly journals Hiding Traces of Status Seeking: Contradictory Tagging Strategies on Instagram

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630512093731
Author(s):  
Floor Fiers
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Random Sample ◽  
Digital Age ◽  
First Century ◽  
High Status ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Status Seeking ◽  
Twenty First Century

The prevailing presence of social media in the twenty-first century has changed processes of self-presentation. This study questions how Instagram users employ the platform’s tagging features to claim and seek status. Content analysis on a random sample of 787 posts carrying the hashtag “instagood” revealed that they utilize the tagging affordances to make their audience aware of their capital. In addition to displaying their capital through tags, however, users employ hashtags and account tags to increase their visibility on the platform. Interestingly, analysis shows the prevalence of attempts to conceal these obvious paratextual status-seeking strategies. Over half of the Instagram posts in the sample showed traces of the creators taking active steps to hide their use of like-hunter hashtags, through which users explicitly ask other Instagrammers for likes and follows. This finding builds upon Marwick’s concept of aspirational production: The perfecting of one’s online presentation does not only happen by producing a high-status image, but also by concealing the “inauthentic” nature of this production. Furthermore, the fact that traces of obvious status seeking can be found online implies that the lines between Goffman’s front- and backstage are blurred in the digital age.

scholarly journals The Causal Effect of Testosterone on Men’s Competitive Behavior is Moderated by Basal Cortisol and Cues to an Opponent’s Status: Evidence for a Context-Dependent Dual Hormone Hypothesis

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik L Knight ◽  
Pablo Morales ◽  
Colton Christian ◽  
William Harbaugh ◽  
Pranjal Mehta ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Performance Feedback ◽  
Causal Effect ◽  
High Status ◽  
Competitive Behavior ◽  
Opposite Pattern ◽  
Testosterone Treatment ◽  
Basal Cortisol ◽  
Status Seeking ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Context Dependent

Testosterone has been theorized to direct status-seeking behaviors, such as competitive decision-making. However, individual differences in basal cortisol and cues that signal an opponent’s status (an opponent’s gender or a prior win/loss in a competition) may moderate testosterone’s relationship with status-seeking behavior. This experiment (n = 115) examines the causal effect of testosterone treatment on men’s competitive behavior before and after receiving relative performance feedback (i.e. win/loss feedback) in mixed-gender math competitions, while also accounting for the moderating role of endogenous basal cortisol. Men given testosterone treatment who had high basal cortisol showed an increased tendency to compete against female opponents and avoid competition against male opponents; men given testosterone treatment who had low basal cortisol showed the opposite pattern (OR = 2.54, 95%CI [1.47, 4.37], p<.001). After providing trial-by-trial feedback, men given testosterone who had high basal cortisol re-entered competitions against low status opponents (prior losers) and avoided competition against high status opponents (prior winners); men given testosterone who had low basal cortisol preferred to re-enter competitions against high status opponents (prior winners) and avoid low status opponents (prior losers; OR = 10.21, [1.84, 56.54], p = .008). These results provide experimental support for a context-dependent dual hormone hypothesis: Testosterone flexibly directs men’s competitive behavior contingent on basal cortisol levels and cues that signal an opponent’s status.

scholarly journals Elucidating the Dark Side of Envy: Distinctive Links of Benign and Malicious Envy With Dark Personalities

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 601-614 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Lange ◽  
Delroy L. Paulhus ◽  
Jan Crusius
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Intentions ◽  
Dark Triad ◽  
Experimental Results ◽  
Dark Side ◽  
Antisocial Behaviors ◽  
Total N ◽  
Functional Value ◽  
Malicious Envy ◽  
Benign Envy ◽  
Trait Correlations

Researchers have recently drawn a contrast between two forms of envy: benign and malicious envy. In three studies (total N = 3,123), we challenge the assumption that malicious envy is destructive, whereas benign envy is entirely constructive. Instead, both forms have links with the Dark Triad of personality. Benign envy is associated with Machiavellian behaviors, whereas malicious envy is associated with both Machiavellian and psychopathic behaviors. In Study 1, this pattern emerged from meta-analyzed trait correlations. In Study 2, a manipulation affecting the envy forms mediated an effect on antisocial behavioral intentions. Study 3 replicated these patterns by linking envy to specific antisocial behaviors and their impact on status in the workplace. Together, our correlational and experimental results suggest that the two forms of envy can both be malevolent. Instead of evaluating envy’s morality, we propose to focus on its functional value.

Asset Pricing with Status Risk

2011 ◽  
Vol 01 (03) ◽  
pp. 495-549 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yoel Krasny
Keyword(s):  
Factor Model ◽  
Empirical Literature ◽  
Idiosyncratic Volatility ◽  
High Status ◽  
Portfolio Choices ◽  
Status Seeking ◽  
The Status ◽  
High Volatility ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Significant Support

This paper examines the impact of status-seeking considerations on investors' portfolio choices and asset prices in a general equilibrium setting. The economy studied in this paper consists of traditional ("Markowitz") investors as well as status-seekers who are concerned about relative wealth. The model highlights the strategic and interdependent nature of portfolio selection in such a setting: Low-status investors look for portfolio choices that maximize their chances of moving up the ladder while high-status investors look to maintain the status quo and hedge against these choices of the low-status investors. In equilibrium, asset returns obey a novel two-factor model in which one factor is the traditional market factor and the other is a particular "high volatility factor" that does not appear to have been identified so far in the theoretical or empirical literature. This two-factor model found significant support when tested with stock market data. Of particular interest is that the model and the empirical results attribute the low returns on idiosyncratic volatility stocks to their covariance with the portfolio of highly volatile stocks held by investors with relatively low status.

scholarly journals Preprint - The painful duality of envy: Evidence for an integrative theory and a meta-analysis on the relation of envy and schadenfreude

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Lange ◽  
Aaron C. Weidman ◽  
Jan Crusius
Keyword(s):  
Meta Analysis ◽  
The Other ◽  
Factor Analyses ◽  
Confirmatory Factor Analyses ◽  
Total N ◽  
Comprehensive Theory ◽  
Malicious Envy ◽  
Confirmatory Factor ◽  
Benign Envy ◽  
Data Driven Approach

Despite envy’s importance as a driver of social behavior, scholars disagree on its conceptualization. We review the literature and distinguish three incongruent theories: (a) Malicious Envy Theory (i.e., envy as uniform and malicious), (b) Dual Envy Theory (i.e., envy as taking on two forms, benign and malicious), and (c) Pain Theory of Envy (i.e., envy as uniform and driven by pain). Moreover, within and across theories, operationalizations of envy have included various different components. We integrate these conceptualizations using a data-driven approach, deriving a comprehensive theory of envy in five studies (total N = 1,237)—the Pain-driven Dual Envy (PaDE) Theory. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of an exhaustive set of envy components (Studies 1-4) suggest that envy consists of three factors: Pain (i.e., preoccupation with the envy-eliciting situation, inferiority), predicts both benign envy (i.e., desire for the envy object, improvement motivation, emulation of the other), and malicious envy (i.e., communication about the other, directed aggression, nondirected aggression). An experience-sampling study (Study 5) suggests that pain constitutes a quickly fading reaction, whereas benign and malicious envy are enduring attitudinal constructs. We apply this theory in a meta-analysis on the controversial relation of envy and schadenfreude (N = 4,366), finding that envy and schadenfreude are more strongly and positively correlated to the extent that the respective research operationalizes envy as malicious, compared to as pain or benign envy. We discuss how the PaDE Theory can illuminate research on envy in diverse settings, and envy’s relation to other distinct emotions.

scholarly journals The Evil Queen’s dilemma: Linking narcissistic admiration and rivalry to benign and malicious envy

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jens Lange ◽  
Jan Crusius ◽  
Birk Hagemeyer
Keyword(s):  
Social Consequences ◽  
The Self ◽  
Fear Of Failure ◽  
Grandiose Narcissism ◽  
Improve Performance ◽  
Motivational Orientations ◽  
Malicious Envy ◽  
Conflicting Evidence ◽  
Emotional Appraisal ◽  
Benign Envy

It is widely assumed that narcissists are envious. Nevertheless, evidence supporting this claim has remained elusive. In five studies (combined N = 1225), we disentangle how grandiose narcissism predicts divergent envious inclinations. Specific facets of narcissism and forms of envy shared the same underlying motivational orientations (Study 1) and distinctively related to each other (Studies 1 to 5) via differences in emotional appraisal (Study 4). Moreover, envy was linked to opposing social consequences of different narcissism facets (Study 5). Specifically, hope for success related to narcissistic admiration, predicting benign envy, which entails the motivation to improve performance, translating into the ascription of social potency by the self and others. In contrast, fear of failure related to narcissistic rivalry, predicting malicious envy, which entails hostility, translating into the ascription of a proneness for social conflict by others. These results converged with envy measured as a trait (Studies 1 and 5) or state in recall tasks (Studies 2 and 4) and as response to an upward standard in the situation (Study 3). The findings provide important insights into narcissists’ emotional complexities, integrate prior isolated and conflicting evidence, and open up new avenues for research on narcissism and envy.

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