Social status

1800s: Martineau · Tocqueville · Marx · Spencer · Le Bon · Ward · Pareto · Tönnies · Veblen · Simmel · Durkheim · Addams · Mead · Weber · Du Bois · Mannheim · Elias Social status is the relative level of social value a person is considered to possess.

While such beliefs can stem from an impressive performance or success, they can also arise from possessing characteristics a society has deemed meaningful like a person's race or occupation.

In this way, status reflects how a society judges a person's relative social worth and merit—however accurate or inaccurate that judgement may be.

In his scheme, which remains influential today, people possess status in the sense of honor because they belong to specific groups with unique lifestyles and privileges.

[6] Modern sociologists and social psychologists broadened this understanding of status to refer to one's relative level of respectability and honor more generally.

Meanwhile, achieved statuses are akin to one's educational credentials or occupation: these things require a person to exercise effort and often undergo years of training.

Status characteristics theory argues members of a task group will listen to whomever they believe will most help them solve a problem.

The program of research finds characteristics assumed to be master statuses (e.g., mental illness) are, in fact, attenuated by known ability.

Although a person's status does not always correspond to merit or actual ability, it does allow the members of a group to coordinate their actions and quickly agree on who among them should be listened to.

For instance, people recognized as achieving great feats for their group or society are sometimes accorded legendary status as heroes.

Because status is based on beliefs about social worth and esteem, sociologists argue it can then appear only natural that higher-status people have more material resources and power.

[6] In modern societies, occupation is usually thought of as the main determinant of status,[27] but other memberships or affiliations (such as ethnic group, religion, gender, voluntary associations, fandom, hobby) can have an influence.

For example, a Khoisan man is expected to take his wife's mother quite seriously (a non-joking relationship), although the mother-in-law has no special "status" over anyone except her son-in-law—and only then in specific contexts.

Social status hierarchies have been documented in a wide range of animals: apes,[28] baboons,[29] wolves,[30] cows/bulls,[31] hens,[32] even fish,[33] and ants.

[34] Natural selection produces status-seeking behavior because animals tend to have more surviving offspring when they raise their status in their social group.

[37] Neurochemicals, particularly serotonin,[38] prompt social dominance behaviors without need for an organism to have abstract conceptualizations of status as a means to an end.

He claimed that social stratification is a result of the interaction of wealth (class), prestige status (or in German Stand) and power (party).

A medical professional shows students a model of human anatomy. People with higher status, like this instructor, command more attention, are more influential, and their statements are evaluated as more accurate, compared to others in the group.
Social status is often associated with clothing and possessions. Compare the foreman with a horse and high hat with the inquilino in picture. Image from 19th century rural Chile.