Collaborative Research: Status and the Organization of Collective Action

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SES- 0647169Brent SimpsonUniversity of South CarolinaSES-064851Robb WillerUniversity of California, BerkeleyCollective action problems exist when members of a group or society can materially profit by not contributing to the public good, choosing instead to free-ride on the contributions of others. Despite the hurdles involved, we know that groups often do act collectively and, in doing so, produce public goods. How do they do it and what are the conditions that make them most successful? The investigators will use Status Characteristics theory to answer three inter-related questions about how status hierarchies within groups organize collective actions and help solve collective action problems: 1) How does a status hierarchy affect when each group member gives to a collective action? 2) How does a group's status hierarchy affect how much each member gives? 3) How do these early contributions affect how much others' give? The PIs predict that higher status group members will give in earlier stages of collective action, give at higher levels, and will have greater influence over others' contributions than those with less status. Because the status hierarchy helps structure sequences of contributions to collective action, status differentiated groups are expected to produce larger public goods than status undifferentiated groups. The PIs will test their arguments across three laboratory studies; in all three studies, they will experimentally manipulate status information and measure the impact on various activities relevant to collective action. An improved understanding of how collective action is shaped by status differences within groups holds much promise for an array of applications outside the lab. Insight into the factors that affect a group's ability to be productive and achieve collective goals is essential to solving collective action problems like the protection of environmental and other depletable resources, organization of disaster response, charity drives, and effective organizational leadership. These insights can also be harnessed to inform interventions to prevent unwanted collective actions such as inner-city gangs and terrorist organizations. In particular, the results of the final study will offer insights on whether and under what conditions status differentiation might lead to greater (or lesser) group productivity. Understanding the impact of status differentiation on a group's ability to produce public goods is of potentially widespread utility to applied efforts to maximize the productivity and efficiency of organizations, social movements, charity drives, non-profit organizations, and other groups.