Status & Safety
We want status because it makes us feel safe. Surprisingly, status makes us feel even safer than power does.
By Jen Overbeck in status studies research
July 24, 2021
Study 1
We surveyed people during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 to assess how much their feelings of status affected their feelings of safety from covid, their sense of physical and psychological safety, and their anxiety about death. Though we found no status effects on covid safety, feeling higher in status was associated with feeling safer in all other areas.
Study 2
We conducted an experiment featuring an animated scenario in which the participant imagines crashing a small plane on a remoted island where the inhabitants are hostile to outsiders. We experimentally manipulated whether the protagonist has a radio beacon (control), a gun (source of power), or an amulet that makes the wearer revered (source of status). The amulet made participants feel safer than the other items; given a free choice, participants preferred to have an amulet than even a gun.
This manuscript is being prepared for submission.
- Posted on:
- July 24, 2021
- Length:
- 1 minute read, 148 words
- Categories:
- status studies research
- See Also:
- Status Instability
- Dissociative Status