Prejudice may be epiphenomenal rather than causal to status hierarchies

Evidence

A unique aspect of this particular model is that it suggests that although prejudice and discriminatory practices may contribute to the formation of status hierarchies, these processes may not be necessary and may, in fact, be epiphenomenal. In addition, the modeling would allow one to test whether varying particular features of the interactions among agents in a system and the strength of the different psychological motives leads to different emergent patterns. For example, if the need for distinctiveness is low, there may be greater tolerance for larger social groups resulting in a status dichotomy (one low-status group and one high-status group) as opposed to a proliferation of smaller groups arrayed in a hierarchy. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 856

Categorization

• QUESTION: This is a falsifiable, counterintuitive claim: does status hierarchy emerge even in prejudice-free populations, making discrimination a symptom rather than a cause?
• SHARE: Worth sending to anyone working on hierarchy or intergroup relations — the idea that discrimination is epiphenomenal to status formation flips the causal frame.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 856