Status Differences in the Cognitive Activation of Social Networks

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Smith, Edward Bishop; Menon, Tanya; Thompson, Leigh
• 署名单位: University of Michigan System; University of Michigan; Northwestern University
• 刊物名称: ORGANIZATION SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1047-7039
• DOI: 10.1287/orsc.1100.0643
• 发表日期: 2012
• 页码: 67-82
• 关键词: Labor markets; laboratory research; experimental designs; social networks; organization and management theory; psychological processes; Organizational behavior; status

摘要

We develop a dynamic cognitive model of network activation and show that people at different status levels spontaneously activate, or call to mind, different subsections of their networks when faced with job threat. Using a multimethod approach (General Social Survey data and a laboratory experiment), we find that, under conditions of job threat, people with low status exhibit a winnowing response (i.e., activating smaller and tighter subsections of their networks), whereas people with high status exhibit a widening response (i.e., activating larger and less constrained subsections of their networks). We integrate traditional network theories with cognitive psychology, suggesting that cognitively activating social networks is a precondition to mobilizing them. One implication is that narrowing the network in response to threat might reduce low-status group members' access to new information, harming their chances of finding subsequent employment and exacerbating social inequality.