Fear of status loss triggers reflexive disparagement of others

Evidence

Allport acknowledged the functional nature of prejudice and identified both material gain and self-enhancement as basic motivational processes underlying prejudice. In terms of material gain, he noted, “Outright greed is certainly a cause of prejudice” (p. 370). With respect to psychological needs, Allport suggested that self-esteem can often be a goal in itself: “most people want to be higher on the status ladder than they are” (p. 371). However, self-enhancement can be based in avoidance as well as approach motives. Insecurity, fear, and anxiety can stimulate a need for self-enhancement, which, in some cases, creates or exacerbates prejudice. Allport believed that the “hunger for status is matched by a haunting fear that one’s status may not be secure. The effort to maintain a precarious position can bring with it an almost reflex disparagement of others” (p. 371). — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 115

Categorization

• XREF: Corroborates status-anxiety and social-identity threat accounts of prejudice; pairs with group-position theory of racial threat. — connects to: Mortality salience increases stereotypic thinking and preference for stereotype-confirming others. — Jeff Greenberg and Spee Kosloff, Terror Management Theory: Implications…, 45
• ADDENDUM: Status precarity driving outgroup disparagement overlaps thematically with class/identity signaling in the moral-panics piece.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 115