Examining the connection between position-based power and social status across 70 cultures

Wasiel A 1 , Górski MR 1 , Bond MH 2 , Yeung VWL 3 , Akaliyski P 4 , Akello G 5 Show all authors , Park J 6 , Joshanloo M 7 , Sokolov B 8 , Hussain MA 9 , Li LMW 10 , Olechowski M 1 , Vignoles VL 11 , Guemaz F 12 , Boussena M 12 , Rabby MR 13 , Okvitawanli A 14 , Myślińska-Szarek K 1 , Haas BW 15 , Sánchez-Rodríguez Á 16 , Vlasenko O 17 , Lun VM 3 , Aminnuddin NA 18 , Işık İ 19 , Barry O 20 , Fülöp M 21 , Igbokwe D 22 , Adamovic M 23 , Garðarsdóttir RB 24 , Soboleva N 8 , Teyssier J 25 , Glückstad FK 26 , Samekin A 27 , Akotia C 28 , Al-Zoubi M 29 , Andrade L 30 , Anić P 31 , Bakyono-Nabaloum R 32 , Baltin A 33 , Costin V 11 , Denoux P 25 , Espinosa AD 34 , Espinosa A 35 , Gamsakhurdia V 36 , Garvanova M 37 , Gavreliuc A 38 , Gjoneska B 39 , Igou ER 40 , Iqbal N 41 , Iter N 42 , Kascakova N 43 , Kazimzade E 44 , Kluzowicz M 1 , Kocimska-Bortnowska A 45 , Kronberger N 46 , Lauri MA 47 , Lee H 48 , Malyonova A 49 , Maricchiolo F 50 , Mohammed L 51 , Mokadem F 12 , Mosanya M 1 , Mosca O 52 , Murdock E 53 , Nader M 54 , Nowak K 1 , Ochoa D 55 , Pavlović Z 56 , Šolcová IP 57 , Purc E 58 , Rizwan M 59 , Rocha AM 60 , Selim H 61 , Sobhie R 62 , Streng M 63 , Sun CR 64 , Tønnessen M 65 , Torres C 30 , Trà KTT 66 , Turjačanin V 67 , van Tilburg W 68 , Vauclair CM 69 , Vergara-Morales J 70 , Xing C 71 , Yakhlef B 72 , Yang JW 73 , Yau EK 3 , Yeung JC 1 , Zelenski J 74 , Krys K 1

Affiliations 

  • 1 Institute of Psychology, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland
  • 2 Department of Management and Marketing, Faculty of Business, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China
  • 3 Department of Psychology, Lingnan University, Hong Kong, China
  • 4 Department of Sociology and Social Policy, Lingnan University, Hong Kong, China
  • 5 Faculty of Medicine, Gulu University, Gulu, Uganda
  • 6 Graduate School of Education, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
  • 7 Department of Psychology, Keimyung University, Daegu, South Korea
  • 8 Higher School of Economics, Ronald F. Inglehart Laboratory for Comparative Social Research, Moscow, Russia
  • 9 Department of Finance and Economics, College of Business Administration, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, UAE
  • 10 Department of Psychology and Centre for Psychosocial Health, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China
  • 11 School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK
  • 12 Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Mohamed Lamine Debaghine-Setif 2, Setif, Algeria
  • 13 BRAC Institute of Educational Development, BRAC University, Dhaka, Bangladesh
  • 14 Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Sebelas Maret, Surakarta, Indonesia
  • 15 Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA
  • 16 Department of Social Psychology and Anthropology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain
  • 17 Institute of Education Science, Osnabrück University, Osnabrück, Germany
  • 18 Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Centre for Islamic Studies, Universiti Brunei Darussalam, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam
  • 19 Department of Psychology, Bahçeşehir University, Istanbul, Turkey
  • 20 Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal
  • 21 Institute of Psychology, Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church, Budapest, Hungary
  • 22 Department of Psychology, Baze University, Abuja, Nigeria
  • 23 King's Business School, King's College London, London, UK
  • 24 Faculty of Psychology, University of Iceland, Reykjavík, Iceland
  • 25 Département Psychologie Clinique Du Sujet, Université Toulouse II, Toulouse, France
  • 26 Department of Management, Society & Communication, Copenhagen Business School, Frederiksberg, Denmark
  • 27 School of Liberal Arts, M. Narikbayev KAZGUU University, Astana, Kazakhstan
  • 28 Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana
  • 29 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Arts, University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan
  • 30 Institute of Psychology, University of Brasilia, Brasília, Brazil
  • 31 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia
  • 32 Département de Philosophie et de Psychologie, Université Joseph Ki-Zerbo, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
  • 33 School of Natural Sciences and Health, Tallinn University, Tallinn, Estonia
  • 34 Psychology Department, Iberoamerican University, Mexico City, Mexico
  • 35 Departamento Académico de Psicología, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima, Peru
  • 36 Department of Psychology, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University, Tbilisi, Georgia
  • 37 Department of Information Systems and Technologies, University of Library Studies and Information Technologies, Sofia, Bulgaria
  • 38 Department of Psychology, West University of Timișoara, Timișoara, Romania
  • 39 Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Skopje, North Macedonia
  • 40 Department of Psychology, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland
  • 41 Department of Psychology, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, India
  • 42 Faculty of Arts and Educational Sciences, Palestine Technical University - Kadoorie, Tulkarm, Palestine
  • 43 Olomouc University Social Health Institute, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czechia
  • 44 Department of Educational Psychology, Baku State University, Baku, Azerbaijan
  • 45 Department of Psychology, SWPS University, Wrocław, Poland
  • 46 Institute of Education and Psychology, Johannes Kepler University Linz, Linz, Austria
  • 47 Department of Psychology, University of Malta, Msida, Malta
  • 48 Department of Psychology, Indiana University Northwest, Gary, Indiana, USA
  • 49 Department of General and Social Psychology, Dostoevsky Omsk State University, Omsk, Russia
  • 50 Department of Education, University of Roma Tre, Rome, Italy
  • 51 Institute of Criminology and Public Safety, University of Trinidad and Tobago, Arima, Trinidad and Tobago
  • 52 Department of Education, Psychology, Philosophy, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy
  • 53 Research Unit INSIDE, University of Luxembourg, Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg
  • 54 Department of Organizational Management, Universidad ICESI, Cali, Colombia
  • 55 Department of Psychology, University of the Philippines Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines
  • 56 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
  • 57 Institute of Psychology, Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, Czechia
  • 58 Institute of Psychology, SWPS University, Warsaw, Poland
  • 59 University of Haripur, Karachi, Pakistan
  • 60 Catholic University of Angola, Luanda, Angola
  • 61 King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
  • 62 Interfaculty for Graduate Studies and Research, Anton de Kom University of Suriname, Paramaribo, Suriname
  • 63 Institute of Psychology, University of Koblenz, Koblenz, Germany
  • 64 Department of Psychology, National Chengchi University, Taiwan, China
  • 65 Department of Social Studies, University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway
  • 66 Department of Psychology, HCMC University of Education, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
  • 67 Faculty of Philosophy, University of Banja Luka, Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • 68 Department of Psychology, University of Essex, Colchester, UK
  • 69 Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Lisbon, Portugal
  • 70 Universidad de Las Américas, Concepción, Chile
  • 71 Department of Psychology, Renmin University of China, Beijing, China
  • 72 École Normale Supérieure of Constantine, Constantine, Algeria
  • 73 Department of Psychology, The Catholic University of Korea, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
  • 74 Department of Psychology, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
Br J Soc Psychol, 2025 Apr;64(2):e12871.
PMID: 40035418 DOI: 10.1111/bjso.12871

Abstract

Even in the most egalitarian societies, hierarchies of power and status shape social life. However, power and received status are not synonymous-individuals in positions of power may or may not be accorded the respect corresponding to their role. Using a cooperatively collected dataset from 18,096 participants across 70 cultures, we investigate, through a survey-based correlational design, when perceived position-based power (operationalized as influence and control) of various powerholders is associated with their elevated social status (operationalized as perceived respect and instrumental social value). We document that the positive link between power and status characterizes most cultural regions, except for WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic) and Post-Soviet regions. The strength of this association depends on individual and cultural factors. First, the perceived other-orientation of powerholders amplifies the positive link between perceived power and status. The perceived self-orientation of powerholders weakens this relationship. Second, among cultures characterized by low Self-Expression versus Harmony (e.g., South Korea, Taiwan), high Embeddedness (e.g., Senegal), and high Cultural Tightness (e.g., Malaysia), the association between power and status tends to be particularly strong. The results underline the importance of both individual perceptions and societal values in how position-based power relates to social status.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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