I realized that I may be begging the question by stipulating that the activity has to have high-involvement. Because by definition, both parties are more reactive in a high-involvement interaction, and therefore, both parties are approximately the same status level.
My main point is that reactivity provides the strongest evidence in determining respective status levels. The degree of engagement in an activity between people is a good measure of reactivity and therefore a good measure of relative status levels. I am saying that any other reference class of status signaling (like chosen topics of conversation), will be less accurate in determining status levels. The most relevant attribute of behavior is the degree of reactivity.
No matter how initially involved participants in an activity are, the status levels can change as their degree reactivity changes. For instance, if an employee starts to act less reactive than the boss while working together, it’s evidence the employee has higher status i.e. more power over the boss.
I realized that I may be begging the question by stipulating that the activity has to have high-involvement. Because by definition, both parties are more reactive in a high-involvement interaction, and therefore, both parties are approximately the same status level.
My main point is that reactivity provides the strongest evidence in determining respective status levels. The degree of engagement in an activity between people is a good measure of reactivity and therefore a good measure of relative status levels. I am saying that any other reference class of status signaling (like chosen topics of conversation), will be less accurate in determining status levels. The most relevant attribute of behavior is the degree of reactivity.
No matter how initially involved participants in an activity are, the status levels can change as their degree reactivity changes. For instance, if an employee starts to act less reactive than the boss while working together, it’s evidence the employee has higher status i.e. more power over the boss.