Uneasy Lies the Head that Wears a Crown: Emotional Expectations and Status

In this paper, we reexamine the idea that status hierarchies influence people’s emotional expectations. Across three experimental studies conducted on national samples of American adults, we examine whether people attribute less blame and more anger to high-status individuals. Contrary to the findings of previous research, we show that across both political and social contexts, high-status individuals are more likely to be blamed for negative events, perceived as less angry, and evaluated more negatively than those with low status. Moreover, these results hold even when we account for the effects of well-established group based social hierarchies such as race.