Why it’s (usually) Good to be the Boss

Social status within a group is profoundly linked with stress and health. Higher status – for example, being a supervisor vs. supervisee, but also based on broader indicators, like income and education – is associated with experiencing fewer stressors, more control over the stressors experienced, reduced physiological responses to stress, and, consequentially, better health and well-being. This talk will focus on links between status, stress, and health, and provide insights on the situations (e.g., unstable hierarchies) in which and people (e.g., certain personality types) for whom such relationships may be exaggerated, disappear altogether, or invert. The talk will highlight the impacts social status has on our daily lives and provide some suggestions for fostering resilience – for supervisors and supervisees, alike – within our social hierarchies.