{"id":{"repo_id":"york","oai_identifier":"oai:yorkspace.library.yorku.ca:10315/41641"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/york/oai:yorkspace.library.yorku.ca:10315/41641","repository":{"repo_id":"york","name":"York University","base_url":"https://yorkspace.library.yorku.ca/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"The Barriers That People with Lower Social Class Background Face in Attaining Prestige: The Case of Volubility","abstract":"Prestige hierarchies appear to exist universally across all human groups, contexts, and cultures, from friendship groups on the playground to boardrooms in the office. Although the demonstration of skills, abilities, and competencies are typically the fundamental drivers of relative prestige standing within a group, evidence indicates that demographic traits and characteristics—such as gender, race, ethnicity, personality traits—can also have non-negligible effects on prestige conferral independently of actual abilities. Social class—an individual’s income, wealth, or material possession—is yet another demographic variable that can contribute to within-group prestige asymmetries. Here, we examine how an individual’s social class is associated with the degree of actual (rather than presumed) prestige (i.e., respect and admiration) they acquire in the context of a given team or group (rather than society at large). Across two studies of 4-person zero-acquaintance groups (Ns = 336 & 512 in Studies 1 & 2, respectively), we demonstrate that people higher in social class acquire greater prestige (even when their social class is not readily apparent), and that volubility—the amount of time that one spends speaking, which is a key behavioral cue of power and agency—acts as a mediating mechanism that accounts for the emergence of these class-based prestige disparities. Discussion focuses on the theoretical and practical implications of these class-based barriers on fairness and meritocracy in how individuals are advanced to prestige and social success.","abstract_html":"Prestige hierarchies appear to exist universally across all human groups, contexts, and cultures, from friendship groups on the playground to boardrooms in the office. Although the demonstration of skills, abilities, and competencies are typically the fundamental drivers of relative prestige standing within a group, evidence indicates that demographic traits and characteristics—such as gender, race, ethnicity, personality traits—can also have non-negligible effects on prestige conferral independently of actual abilities. Social class—an individual’s income, wealth, or material possession—is yet another demographic variable that can contribute to within-group prestige asymmetries. Here, we examine how an individual’s social class is associated with the degree of actual (rather than presumed) prestige (i.e., respect and admiration) they acquire in the context of a given team or group (rather than society at large). Across two studies of 4-person zero-acquaintance groups (Ns = 336 & 512 in Studies 1 & 2, respectively), we demonstrate that people higher in social class acquire greater prestige (even when their social class is not readily apparent), and that volubility—the amount of time that one spends speaking, which is a key behavioral cue of power and agency—acts as a mediating mechanism that accounts for the emergence of these class-based prestige disparities. Discussion focuses on the theoretical and practical implications of these class-based barriers on fairness and meritocracy in how individuals are advanced to prestige and social success.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Arshad, Memoona"],"institution":null,"degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":["Cheng, Joey"],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2023,"date_issued":"2023-12-08","date_published":"2023-12-08","updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:33:45Z","subjects":["Social psychology"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Author owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests."],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://hdl.handle.net/10315/41641","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier.uri"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor.advisor","label":"Advisor","values":["Cheng, Joey"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Arshad, Memoona"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.accessioned","label":"Dc Date Accessioned","values":["2023-12-08T14:28:41Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2023-12-08T14:28:41Z"]},{"key":"dc:date.issued","label":"Date","values":["2023-12-08"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Electronic Thesis or Dissertation"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Social psychology"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Author owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests."]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier.uri","label":"Identifier URI","values":["https://hdl.handle.net/10315/41641"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Prestige hierarchies appear to exist universally across all human groups, contexts, and cultures, from friendship groups on the playground to boardrooms in the office. Although the demonstration of skills, abilities, and competencies are typically the fundamental drivers of relative prestige standing within a group, evidence indicates that demographic traits and characteristics—such as gender, race, ethnicity, personality traits—can also have non-negligible effects on prestige conferral independently of actual abilities. Social class—an individual’s income, wealth, or material possession—is yet another demographic variable that can contribute to within-group prestige asymmetries. Here, we examine how an individual’s social class is associated with the degree of actual (rather than presumed) prestige (i.e., respect and admiration) they acquire in the context of a given team or group (rather than society at large). Across two studies of 4-person zero-acquaintance groups (Ns = 336 & 512 in Studies 1 & 2, respectively), we demonstrate that people higher in social class acquire greater prestige (even when their social class is not readily apparent), and that volubility—the amount of time that one spends speaking, which is a key behavioral cue of power and agency—acts as a mediating mechanism that accounts for the emergence of these class-based prestige disparities. Discussion focuses on the theoretical and practical implications of these class-based barriers on fairness and meritocracy in how individuals are advanced to prestige and social success."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["The Barriers That People with Lower Social Class Background Face in Attaining Prestige: The Case of Volubility"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor.advisor":["Cheng, Joey"],"dc:creator":["Arshad, Memoona"],"dc:date.accessioned":["2023-12-08T14:28:41Z"],"dc:date.available":["2023-12-08T14:28:41Z"],"dc:date.issued":["2023-12-08"],"dc:description.abstract":["Prestige hierarchies appear to exist universally across all human groups, contexts, and cultures, from friendship groups on the playground to boardrooms in the office. Although the demonstration of skills, abilities, and competencies are typically the fundamental drivers of relative prestige standing within a group, evidence indicates that demographic traits and characteristics—such as gender, race, ethnicity, personality traits—can also have non-negligible effects on prestige conferral independently of actual abilities. Social class—an individual’s income, wealth, or material possession—is yet another demographic variable that can contribute to within-group prestige asymmetries. Here, we examine how an individual’s social class is associated with the degree of actual (rather than presumed) prestige (i.e., respect and admiration) they acquire in the context of a given team or group (rather than society at large). Across two studies of 4-person zero-acquaintance groups (Ns = 336 & 512 in Studies 1 & 2, respectively), we demonstrate that people higher in social class acquire greater prestige (even when their social class is not readily apparent), and that volubility—the amount of time that one spends speaking, which is a key behavioral cue of power and agency—acts as a mediating mechanism that accounts for the emergence of these class-based prestige disparities. Discussion focuses on the theoretical and practical implications of these class-based barriers on fairness and meritocracy in how individuals are advanced to prestige and social success."],"dc:identifier.uri":["https://hdl.handle.net/10315/41641"],"dc:language":["en"],"dc:rights":["Author owns copyright, except where explicitly noted. Please contact the author directly with licensing requests."],"dc:subject":["Social psychology"],"dc:title":["The Barriers That People with Lower Social Class Background Face in Attaining Prestige: The Case of Volubility"],"dc:type":["Electronic Thesis or Dissertation"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T06:33:45Z"}