While the striving for status has long been recognized in animals and in humans, the role of status in their utility calculations has not been clarified. Specifically, the debate has not been settled whether people pursue status as a means to achieve power and resources or as an (emotional) goal...

Status involves group members evaluating themselves relative to fellow group members according to some shared standard of value. Status has been described in economics, sociology and evolutionary anthropology. Based on this work, we treat status and the associated recognition by others as an...