The Status Signals Paradox: When making new friends, people tend to think that displaying high-status markers will make them more attractive to others, but they are found to be less attractive

The Status Signals Paradox. Stephen M. Garcia, Kimberlee Weaver, Patricia Chen.Social Psychological and Personality Science, https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550618783712

Abstract: Making friends is critical to well-being. We also live in a society where the display of status is ubiquitous and billions of dollars are spent on high-status consumer goods. In the present analysis, we introduce the Status Signals Paradox: When making new friends, people tend to think that displaying high-status markers of themselves (e.g., a BMW, a Tag Heuer watch) will make them more attractive to others than neutral markers (e.g., a Honda, a generic brand watch); however, from the perspective of would-be friends, individuals who display high-status markers are found to be less attractive as new friends than those with neutral status markers. Six studies provide converging evidence of the status signals paradox.

Keywords: social comparison, presenter paradox, decision-making, naive realism