The Most Effective Traits for Improving Social Status(Florida Atlantic University et al., 2020)

Goal and Success

Purpose and Background of the Research

The human brain is programmed with a system for estimating the socialstatus of others.
And the criteria for judging social status will vary depending on thesituation and community.
So usually, a person's social status is not constant and goes up and down.
However, some people continue to maintain a high status even as theircircumstances and communities change.
Past researches have shown that the trait that such people ofconsistently high social status possess is sociability.
This study looked again at what characteristics enhance social status.

Research Methods

Type of ResearchObservational study
Number of experiments conductedTwo studies
Experimental ParticipantChildren aged 9 to 12 years old.
In the first study, 306 girls and 305 boys were involved in the study.
The second study involved 363 girls and 299 boys.
Outline of the experiment
  1. Participants in the experiment voted for a person who fit each of thefollowing characteristics.
    Past researches have shown that all of these characteristics arerelated to the level of popularity within a community.
    • Popular person
    • Intelligent person
    • A person of high physical ability
    • A person with a sense of justice
    • A person with leadership
    • Aggressive person
    • Kind person
    • Person fun to be with
  2. Based on the voting results of the subjects, researchers investigatedwhat characteristics were most associated with social status.
  3. In the second experiment, subjects were asked to vote again eightweeks after the first vote and researchers checked for changes insocial status.

Research Findings

  • The trait most associated with social status is the trait of being funto be with.
  • People who are fun to be with show the following trends eight weeksafter the initial vote enacted.
    • Social status is further enhanced.
    • The level of fun to be with is further enhanced.

Consideration

  • If you want to increase your social status, it might be more efficientto make people think you're fun to be with.
  • People who are fun to be with get the following virtuous cycle.
    1. Social status is increased.
    2. Become an even more fun person to be with thanks to the increasedsocial status.
  • According to this study, people who are fun to be with are thought tohave the following characteristics.
    • High mental flexibility.
    • High curiosity.
    • Extroverted.
    • Low neurotic tendency.

    In a nutshell, it's someone who can properly control their ego andcope with stressful situations.

Reference

Reference PaperBrett et al., 2020
AffiliationsFlorida Atlantic University et al.
JournalPersonality