The Status-Size Hypothesis: How Cues of Physical Size and Social Status Influence Each Other.

The current chapter investigates the relationship between someone’s physical size and assessments of their social status. Physical size is related to status in many species-including humans- and may affect both real and perceived status. We refer to this as the status-size hypothesis, the automatic association between physical size and position in a status hierarchy. We review the evidence for this hypothesis, drawing on both human and non-human data. Furthermore, we distinguish between different aspects of physical size and pathways to obtain status in groups with implications for the status-size effect. We find that height and muscularity differently affect status perception, and that status obtained through coercion (dominance) differently affects size perception than status obtained through voluntary deference (prestige). Furthermore, contextual cues of competition versus cooperation moderate the status-size relationship. A review of results from various studies, including our own, supports various predictions from the hypothesis: (a) high status dominant and prestigious individuals are estimated taller, and (b) taller individuals are estimated higher in prestige and dominance-based status; (c) dominant high-status individuals are perceived as more muscular than prestigious high-status individuals, (d) more muscular individuals are perceived as dominant but not necessarily prestigious; finally (e) unlike adults, primary school-aged children associate size with dominance but not with prestige, suggesting that though dominance may be universally linked to increased size, the relationship between height and prestige is culturally learned. © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014. All rights are reserved.