Status Valued Goal Objects and Performance Expectations

I designed an experiment to test predictions, derived from expectation states theories, that the unequal allocation of social rewards among collective task-focused actors will affect the actors' rates of power and prestige behavior. Past research shows that allocations of exchangeable resources can have these effects. The prediction, however, is general and applies to groups where distributed rewards possess only status value. Consistent with predictions, participants who received a fictitious title and a special certificate inviting them to attend an "exclusive private reception" as an honored guest resisted influence more and evaluated themselves as more capable compared to participants whose partners received the title, certificate and invitation. I discuss implications of this research for status construction theories, which invoke the processes I examine to describe how new status characteristics could emerge in a society.