Dominance benefits men and prestige benefits women in social influence, but time equalizes these effects, study finds

A study published in Journal of Personality & Social Psychology examined how dominance and prestige influence social standing across men and women over time.

The dominance-prestige framework, widely studied in social and evolutionary psychology, identifies dominance (assertiveness and control) and prestige (competence and cooperation) as two distinct paths to achieving influence and status.

However, this framework has largely overlooked the role of gender stereotypes and how they may shape the effectiveness of these strategies. Gender norms often dictate that dominance aligns with stereotypically masculine traits, while prestige aligns with communal traits which are considered more feminine. As a result, individuals who defy these expectations often face backlash, raising questions about the universal applicability of these strategies.

Hemant Kakkar investigated whether the effectiveness of dominance and prestige as strategies for gaining social influence depends on an individual’s gender, and whether these dynamics shift over time.

Three pilot studies provided context for interpreting the results of the main study. Pilot Study 1 (100 participants) confirmed that Twitter was an appropriate stereotype-neutral platform for examining gendered social influence. Pilot Study 2 (397 participants) established that dominance and prestige aligned with masculine and feminine traits, respectively. Pilot Study 3 (389 participants) clarified that dominance was linked to behaviors likely to elicit backlash for women, whereas prestige involved traits more socially acceptable for both genders.

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Building on these findings, the main study involved a sample of 188 participants (99 men and 89 women) who provided self-reports on their tendencies toward dominance and prestige using a 17-item scale. Participants also shared their public Twitter handles, allowing the researcher to analyze their online social networks and behavior. The study included a total of 229,884 tweets, scraping up to 3,200 tweets per participant, which included their entire Twitter history for 61.7% of the sample. Only original tweets authored by participants were included, while retweets and celebrity content were excluded to focus on participants’ direct influence within their networks.

Kakkar operationalized social influence by measuring the number of times a participant’s tweets were retweeted. Network centrality, or how often participants were directly mentioned, tagged, or replied to by their followers, was calculated as a proxy for likability and social standing within the network. Additional factors such as emotional tone of tweets, reciprocity in retweeting, and temporal trends in retweet activity were controlled to isolate the effects of dominance and prestige.

Kakkar found that dominance and prestige interact with gender to influence social standing on Twitter. Men benefited from dominance, with higher dominance associated with more retweets and network centrality, as it aligned with masculine stereotypes of assertiveness. In contrast, women experienced reduced social influence when using dominance, as it violated communal gender norms, leading to lower retweets and network centrality. Prestige, however, was more effective for women, boosting their influence by aligning with societal expectations of competence and cooperation. For men, prestige had a weaker effect on social influence, as its communal aspects clashed with traditional masculine stereotypes.

Over time, the effectiveness of dominance declined for both men and women, as its coercive nature led to diminished likability and influence. Prestige, on the other hand, became more viable for both genders over time, as its attributes of competence and collaboration resonated with network members who grew more familiar with the individuals.

These findings demonstrate that gender stereotypes and time dynamically shape the viability of dominance and prestige as strategies for achieving social influence.

One limitation was the reliance on Twitter as a study context, which may not generalize to offline interactions.

The study, “Achieving social influence across gender and time: Are dominance and prestige equally viable for men and women?” was authored by Hemant Kakkar.