Status is relational comparison, not a fixed resource, and affects behavior through identity

Evidence

The reconceptualization of social status attempted earlier needs now to be made more explicit. Status is not considered here as a scarce resource or commodity, such as power or wealth; it is the outcome of intergroup comparison. It reflects a group’s relative position on some evaluative dimensions of comparison. Low subjective status does not promote inter-group competition directly; its effects on inter-group behavior are mediated by social identity processes. The lower is a group’s subjective status position in relation to relevant comparison groups, the less is the contribution it can make to positive social identity. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2736

Categorization

• DEFINE: Status is reconceived from a commodity into the outcome of intergroup comparison, with identity as the mediating mechanism.
• ADDENDUM: Status-as-relational-comparison ties to how groups, like thatch-roof hut builders, compete on alternate dimensions when they cannot win on the original one.
• XREF: connects to: Status is context-dependent and operates through peer perception rather than objective rank. — Alice E. Marwick, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity,…, 171; Understanding status mechanisms is a precondition for reducing inequality; Rational calculation alone would generate status seeking regardless of innate drive — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 63 (+4 more)