Beyond Dominance and Competence: A Moral Virtue Theory of Status Attainment

Recognition has grown that moral behavior (e.g., generosity) plays a role in status attainment, yet it remains unclear how, why, and when demonstrating moral characteristics enhances status. Drawing on philosophy, anthropology, psychology, and organizational behavior, I critically review a third rou...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inPersonality and social psychology review Vol. 21; no. 3; pp. 203 - 227
Main Author Bai, Feng
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.08.2017
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Emotions
Ethical Theory
Humans
Mental Competency
Morality
Morals
Organizational behavior
Philosophy
Social classes
Social Dominance
Social psychology
Status
Status attainment
Virtues
social status
admiration
morality
culture
social class
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Summary:Recognition has grown that moral behavior (e.g., generosity) plays a role in status attainment, yet it remains unclear how, why, and when demonstrating moral characteristics enhances status. Drawing on philosophy, anthropology, psychology, and organizational behavior, I critically review a third route to attaining status: virtue, and propose a moral virtue theory of status attainment to provide a generalized account of the role of morality in status attainment. The moral virtue theory posits that acts of virtue elicit feelings of warmth and admiration (for virtue), and willing deference, toward the virtuous actor. I further consider how the scope and priority of moralities and virtues endorsed by a moral community are bound by culture and social class to affect which moral characteristics enhance status. I end by outlining an agenda for future research into the role of virtue in status attainment.
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ISSN:1088-8683
1532-7957
DOI:10.1177/1088868316649297