Doctoral Dissertation Research: Testing a Status Theory of Collection Action

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The "collective action problem" describes situations like those found in fund-raising drives and charities where all group members profit more by withholding contribution to the public good, opting instead to "free-ride" on the contributions of others. If all act in their material self-interest, however, no public goods are produced and everyone is worse off. I am investigating this dilemma in part because it poses the fundamental social question of "Why society?" Why do individuals come together in groups when they can profit more by not contributing to group endeavors while still taking their share of the public good? I plan to test a theory wherein status, an individual's standing in a group based on prestige, honor, and deference, serves as an incentive for collective action contributions. The status theory of collective action asserts that 1) Individuals contribute to collective action in part to gain status in the group because being held in high regard by others is a valued reward, 2) Contribution improves an individual's status standing in the group by increasing her apparent group motivation, 3) Group members adjust their impressions of each other's status standing without experiencing costs, 4) As the costs of contribution increase so do status rewards since self-sacrificing behavior is evidence of high group motivation. The proposed research also challenges traditional rational choice assumptions that incentives for contributions to collective action must be material and administered at cost. Two proposed laboratory experiments test hypotheses formally derived from the theory. Results of the studies will be presented at professional meetings. The broader impacts of the project include the training of several undergraduate research assistants, development of software that will be used as a teaching instrument, and support for the University's graduate program. Further, the representativeness of a democracy is contingent on collective action success by interest groups; successful mobilization is especially critical for the improvement of the conditions of traditionally underrepresented minorities. To that end, the proposed research suggests novel strategies for mobilizing collective action outside the laboratory that can be deduced from the theory and provides theoretical explanations of some existing strategies.