Status-driven group choice precedes adoption of that group’s behavioral conventions

Evidence

Our status needs also guide us toward particular environments, where we’ll likely imitate our peers. The Onion TV segment “Thousands of Girls Match Description of Missing Sorority Sister” joked that Ohio police struggled to find a missing woman with “dyed blonde hair, Ugg boots, purple nail polish, and oversized sunglasses” because this description fit nearly every sorority member in the state. Many sorority sisters may unconsciously gravitate toward the same styles—but only after making a status-based decision to join the group in the first place. Furthermore, new members tend to imitate high-ranking seniors. When the writer Stephanie Talmadge pledged a sorority, she was impressed by the upper-level students who wore “more makeup more expertly applied, and paired more expensive-looking dresses with coordinating accessories.” Not only did they set standards, they enforced them: “We would submit photos of ourselves in our dresses from several angles to the recruitment chairs for approval.” — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 133

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: how aesthetic conformity in homogenous groups (from sororities to startups) is actually a two-stage process — choosing the group for status, then absorbing its look as if choices were free. Could be an article on ‘the illusion of personal style.’
• XREF: connects to: Status-seekers rationally join groups that reward the virtues they already possess — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 100; Status-seeking drives humans to comply with conventions that then reshape perception. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 123; Status groups originate and preserve the conventions that become social norms — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 129 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Partner choice predicts fair cooperation while group selection predicts utilitarian cooperation. #corroborates (0.75) — Nicolas Baumard, A mutualistic approach to morality, 637
• Visible group distinctions make people link personal needs to group status #qualifies (0.72) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1473