We don’t grow out of junior high: Antisocial orientation cues predict status conferral

We extend the literature on prestige-based (versus dominance-based) status by identifying a more nuanced process of status conferral. The conventional narrative of status conferral holds that perceivers grant status to candidates who show competence and the willingness to share benefits of that competence with the group. We argue that competence is only one valued individual characteristic on which status may be based; more important, willingness to share, or prosociality, is not the only social orientation that predicts status. Inspired by the literatures on coolness and adolescent popularity, we argue that cues of antisociality'specifically, of defiance and exclusivity'can foster prestige-based status conferral, by prompting inferences of agency. In three studies, we find support for these predictions, examining status conferral to celebrities, to US presidential candidates, and to collaborating members of task teams.