Objective Status, Subjective Status and Prosociality of Swiss Apprentices

Abstract

In previous research, both positive and negative relationships between social status and prosociality have been reported. We argue that the nature of the observed status can explain these divergent findings. In an experimental study with technical and commercial apprentices, we show that objective status can have a positive effect on prosocial behaviour and that subjective status can have a negative effect when controlling for objective status.

Keywords

• altruism
• social preferences
• empathy
• dictator game
• quasi-experiment