Susan T. Fiske - Envy Up, Scorn Down: How Status Divides Us

IN THE United States today we are divided by envy and scorn, brought on by the status concerns that pervade our society. Income inequality, now at historically high levels, aggravates these status divides. Many of us envy those above us in status and scorn those below us, but whether we are the object of these comparisons or the person making them, feelings of envy and scorn can be hazardous to our health. So why do we always compare ourselves with each other, what happens when we do, and how can we harness this obsession for goodin ourselves, our relationships, our work, and our society?

I got interested in these issues for reasons that were equal parts political, scientific, and personal. Every election season we pit Main Street against Wall Streetand implicitly, both against Skid Row. Who are the American heroes? Why do we distrust elites? Why do we not want educated people to run the country? Why do we neglect our poor more than do most other industrialized countries? This book explores the psychology behind these American political questions.

These are exciting times for psychological science, especially experimental social psychology and social neuroscience. We're learning a great deal about people's immediate reactions to each other, whether thinking or unthinking, both up and down the status hierarchy. This book draws deeply on work conducted by the Fiske Lab at Princeton University, a team of students and post-docs who constantly motivate me (see http://www.princeton.edu/~fiskelab/), and on the work of colleagues who are doing some experiments that would amaze even the most jaded kibitzers.

How did I come to write this book? It is not as obvious as it may seem. As a Princeton professor, I hold an enviable position, about which I feel both grateful and luckybut my good fortune sometimes divides me from people I hold dear. So I am motivated to understand better how the potentially envied can defuse uncomfortable encounters with people who think they may be scorned. In addition, even though I try to avoid it,occasionally I have to cope with my own envy of others, and I worry about how my position may allow unthinking scorn to creep into my daily life.

This book, then, is a political-scientific-personal meditation on these themes. No book is written alone, and my first thanks go to the Guggenheim and Russell Sage Foundations, which supported my year in academic heaven, and Princeton, which granted me a leave from teaching. Thanks especially to RSF president Eric Wanner, publications director Suzanne Nichols, information services director Claire Gabriel, librarian Katie Winograd, administrative assistant Alexsa Rosa, and research assistant Sophia Leung, as well as other staff who perfected the paradise. Among our wonderful cohort of visiting scholars, I thank Diana Sanchez and Tim Salthouse for responding to partial drafts, as well as Julia Ott and Ann Swidler, who provided references. Thanks to Tom Pettigrew (still mentoring after all these years) for a rapid and constructive review. Commentators John Clayton, Annette Lareau, and Paul DiMaggio also responded to partial drafts. And Shelley Taylor gave me the courage to undertake the project at all. This book is dedicated to Doug, who inspires and supports me, and Lydia, who provided cultural leads, read drafty drafts, and continues to amaze me every day.