Group Processes and the Diffusion of Status Beliefs

How are consensual beliefs about the status-value of individual characteristics created in a society? A recent theory posits that inequalities in the distribution of resources in a population are translated into greater or lesser levels of consensus via social interaction in small groups. According to this theory, a macrostructural correlation between resources and a distinguishable individual difference variable constrains who interacts with whom and governs the group dynamics of these encounters. It engenders certain belief-acquisition processes that create and spread status beliefs about the variable, eventually making them consensual. We constructed a formal model of this diffusion process that includes the group interaction effects posited by the theory, also the effects of group size and the unmediated impact of macrostructural conditions. Calculations based on this new integratedformulation support most of the original theoretical analysis. In addition, simulation results suggest the likelihood that two- to four-person groups are especially important as creators and spreaders of status beliefs, supporting in a slightly modified fashion the earlier claim that group processes have the power to translate macrostructural constraints on actors into macro-level outcomes. These simulations also clarify several contingencies and other implications of the theory not fully apparent in the original formulation.