Willing to cooperate seems to be low status signaling. E.g., a low status author of an article may try to get higher status person as a coauthor of his article. But higher status author would not try to get low status author as a coauthor.
Higher status people could defect with lower punishment, like not return calls or not keep promises.
It results in open willingness to cooperate may be regarded as a signal of low status and some people may deliberately not cooperate to demonstrate their higher status. Any thoughts?
I think cooperation is more complex than that, as far as who benefits. Superficially, yes it benefits lower status participants the most and therefore suggests they’re the ones most likely to ask. In very simple systems, I think you see this often. But as the system or cultural superstructure gets more complex, the benefit rises toward higher status participants. Most societies put a lot of stock in being able to organize—a task which includes cooperation in its scope. That’s a small part of the reason you get political email spam asking for donations, even if you live in an area where your political party is clearly dominant. Societies also tend to put an emphasis on active overall participation (the ‘irons in the fire’ mentality), where peer-cooperation is rewarded, and it’s often unclear who has higher status in those situations without being able to tell who has the most ‘irons in the fire’ so to speak. I feel like this is where coauthoring falls. Although it probably depends on what subculture has developed around the subject being authored.
And then there’s the people who create organizations entirely centered around cooperation. The idea being that there’s power in being able to set the rules of how the lower status participants are allowed to cooperate, and how they are rewarded for their cooperation. For example, Youtube and Kickstarter. In these and similar systems, cooperation effectively starts at the highest possible status and rolls downhill.
In your example I would say mostly yes it does signal lower status, but you should do it anyway.
Willingness to collaborate is not as pure of a signal as say something like owning a winter home does to signal status because if I knew nothing about your willingness to collaborate I could still tell your status by examining your catalog of publications. Willingness to collaborate is an attempt to increase the lower status that you already have to a level that you would like to have. It’s like attempting to win is signalling that you haven’t won yet, but how do you win? You have to attempt to win.
I have recently been thinking about how incredibly useful networking is. I know successful people that have large and small social/professional networks, but if I examine only the people who I know that have large social/professional networks they are almost always employed and win more.
I’ve noticed that old money types will tend to cooperate in this sort of publication-based dilemma more frequently for cultural reasons: to them, not cooperating would be a failure to show off their generosity.
To give a real life example, I’ve often seen my parent’s friends “fighting over the check” when they all eat together, while I’ve never seen new-money-types of similar net worth do this outside of romantic contexts.
Willing to cooperate seems to be low status signaling. E.g., a low status author of an article may try to get higher status person as a coauthor of his article. But higher status author would not try to get low status author as a coauthor. Higher status people could defect with lower punishment, like not return calls or not keep promises. It results in open willingness to cooperate may be regarded as a signal of low status and some people may deliberately not cooperate to demonstrate their higher status. Any thoughts?
I think cooperation is more complex than that, as far as who benefits. Superficially, yes it benefits lower status participants the most and therefore suggests they’re the ones most likely to ask. In very simple systems, I think you see this often. But as the system or cultural superstructure gets more complex, the benefit rises toward higher status participants. Most societies put a lot of stock in being able to organize—a task which includes cooperation in its scope. That’s a small part of the reason you get political email spam asking for donations, even if you live in an area where your political party is clearly dominant. Societies also tend to put an emphasis on active overall participation (the ‘irons in the fire’ mentality), where peer-cooperation is rewarded, and it’s often unclear who has higher status in those situations without being able to tell who has the most ‘irons in the fire’ so to speak. I feel like this is where coauthoring falls. Although it probably depends on what subculture has developed around the subject being authored.
And then there’s the people who create organizations entirely centered around cooperation. The idea being that there’s power in being able to set the rules of how the lower status participants are allowed to cooperate, and how they are rewarded for their cooperation. For example, Youtube and Kickstarter. In these and similar systems, cooperation effectively starts at the highest possible status and rolls downhill.
In your example I would say mostly yes it does signal lower status, but you should do it anyway.
Willingness to collaborate is not as pure of a signal as say something like owning a winter home does to signal status because if I knew nothing about your willingness to collaborate I could still tell your status by examining your catalog of publications. Willingness to collaborate is an attempt to increase the lower status that you already have to a level that you would like to have. It’s like attempting to win is signalling that you haven’t won yet, but how do you win? You have to attempt to win.
I have recently been thinking about how incredibly useful networking is. I know successful people that have large and small social/professional networks, but if I examine only the people who I know that have large social/professional networks they are almost always employed and win more.
I’ve noticed that old money types will tend to cooperate in this sort of publication-based dilemma more frequently for cultural reasons: to them, not cooperating would be a failure to show off their generosity.
To give a real life example, I’ve often seen my parent’s friends “fighting over the check” when they all eat together, while I’ve never seen new-money-types of similar net worth do this outside of romantic contexts.