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The acceptance of low prestige

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 May 2016

Joseph M. Whitmeyer
Joseph M. Whitmeyer*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina, Charlotte, Charlotte, NC 28223, [email protected]
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Abstract

I employ a simulation model previously used to analyze the choice of top members in a hierarchy to examine the acceptance of low prestige in a group of possibly large size. Results show that acceptance of low rank is most likely when the collective benefit available is mostly nonrival and nonexcludable and has low additivity (every contribution helps), and the ability of even low ability group members to contribute is high in absolute terms. I discuss possible mechanisms, through genetic or behavioral selection, by which the capacity to believe in one's own low rank may have developed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Politics and the Life Sciences , Volume 26 , Issue 2 , September 2007 , pp. 33 - 45
Copyright
Copyright © Association for Politics and the Life Sciences 

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