Force and Persuasion: How Do We Humans Climb the Social Hierarchy?

Abstract:

The avenues through which people compete for social rank are seemingly varied. Do these different strategies effectively promote rank? What effects do these influence tactics, when used by leaders, have on team success and well-being?

This talk will explore how two fundamental strategies to social rank—dominance (i.e., relying on intimidation to induce compliance) and prestige (i.e., earning respect via competence to increase persuasion)—influence individual and group outcomes. In both field and lab groups, individuals who use a dominance or a prestige strategy exercise greater behavioral impact and receive more visual attention. While dominance is especially efficacious in environments with weaker egalitarian norms, prestige on the other hand appears to offer a stable form of influence over time and contexts. In terms of collective outcomes, when these strategies are deployed by leaders, dominant leaders lead to group-wide negative affect. By contrast, prestigious leaders boost team creativity, follower loyalty, and positive affect. Together, these findings indicate that although both dominance and prestige strategies reward individuals with higher rank and social success, they confer distinct benefits and costs on self, other, and teams. Other current and future research will be discussed.