PIs: Murray Webster, Lisa Rashotte, and Alison Bianchi Institutions: University of North Carolina at Charlotte; University of Iowa
This award supports experimental tests of a new theory describing how status value can spread from status characteristics to unevaluated, nominal characteristics. The research question is how characteristics come to carry connotations of esteem, social worth, and performance skills instead of being simply descriptive terms. Theoretically, under specified conditions, status value can spread from existing status characteristics to new nominal characteristics, changing them from simple descriptors to indications of social worth and ability. The research strategy is to design and conduct laboratory experiments to test the theory by attempting to create a new status characteristic in Year 1 at UNC Charlotte, and using complementary techniques to break down an existing status characteristic in Year 2 at Iowa. The research will improve the theoretical model and contribute to a large body of empirical research on status processes.
Broader impacts of this work will appear in schools and organizational settings as applied researchers develop ways to control the status creation process using techniques similar to those we develop in the laboratory. For several decades, status generalization theories have been used to design interventions to reduce harmful effects of existing status characteristics such as ethnicity and gender; from this work we will understand ways to head off the creation of new characteristics, and to eliminate their status value. Such approaches should be very useful, eliminating status effects rather than partially overcoming them, or creating new status characteristics instead of temporarily conferring some status advantages and disadvantages. Even without interventions, understanding the process of status creation can allow observers to guard against it in their assessments of other individuals. Finally, this collaborative project links experienced PIs with a younger PI, strengthening the research infrastructure at both of the institutions.
