Modeling Status Interventions with Affect Control Theory

Abstract

Status interventions alter task group members’ expectations for the value of each other’s contributions. While research shows that status interventions increase the likelihood that a higher-status actor will accept influence from a lower-status actor, the process by which interventions unfold during interaction deserves theoretical attention. By conceiving status interventions as lines of action that carry cultural meaning, sociologists can use structural theories of symbolic interaction such as Affect Control Theory (ACT) to better understand them. One status intervention involves lower-status actors presenting themselves as group-motivated to counter expectations that lower-status actors are self-interested. An interaction simulator based in ACT, INTERACT, allows us to demonstrate how group-motivation alters impressions of lower-status actors from the perspective of a higher-status actor. Given that gender has been identified as a status characteristic that favors men in the U.S., we use INTERACT to model the effect of a woman presenting herself as group motivated on a man’s impressions. Results suggest that qualitative insights from INTERACT can be used to further explore the relationship between status interventions and hierarchy in everyday life.