Higher status people receive more help, compliments, and favorable treatment

Evidence

Esteem can be expressed through a wide range of palpable benefits. People with above-average status experience favorable interactions—“salutations, invitations, compliments, and minor services.” The champion golfer Lee Trevino noted, “When I was a rookie, I told jokes, and no one laughed. After I began winning tournaments, I told the same jokes, and all of a sudden, people thought they were funny.” This positive attention doesn’t just channel into greater self-esteem: life gets easier, especially during emergencies. “A man in a clean, well-pressed suit who falls down in a central London or Manhattan street,” writes author Alison Lurie, “is likely to be helped up sooner than one in filthy tatters.” People go out of their way to help a prince but not a pauper. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 67

Categorization

• QUESTION: Lee Trevino’s joke example suggests perceived quality of the same content varies by status — worth chasing the experimental literature (e.g., prestige effects on evaluation).
• XREF: connects to: Disparaging a lower-status group psychologically uplifts the higher-status group — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core: On the Role of…, 236; Higher-status people receive more credit for identical work — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 68; Students who receive higher grades implicitly reward their instructors with higher ratings — Anthony G. Greenwald and Mahzarin R. Banaji, Implicit Social Cognition: Attitudes,…, 169

Broader Connections

• Higher-status people receive more credit for identical work #exemplifies (0.90) — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 68
• Disparaging a lower-status group psychologically uplifts the higher-status group #complicates (0.72) — Sheldon Solomon, Jeff Greenberg, Tom Pyszczynski, The Worm at the Core, 236