Bridging the gap: The role of shared group membership in status generalization

This paper extends earlier work examining the relationship between status and group membership as sources of influence. It is argued that shared group membership facilitates status generalization, the carrying over of status in one domain to influence in another unrelated domain. In the first experiment, where interaction partners were differentiated by a highly relevant task ability, the partners' group membership (same or different) had no effects on influence. In the second experiment, partners with a high level of relevant task ability were equally influential regardless of group membership, but partners with high ability on an irrelevant task were more influential if they were ingroup members than if they were not. Findings are discussed in relation to status characteristics theory and the concept of social status.