%0 Journal Article
%T The Status Signals Paradox
%A Kimberlee Weaver
%A Patricia Chen
%A Stephen M. Garcia
%J Social Psychological and Personality Science
%@ 1948-5514
%D 2019
%R 10.1177/1948550618783712
%X Making friends is critical to well-being. We also live in a society where the display of status is ubiquitous and billions of dollars are spent on high-status consumer goods. In the present analysis, we introduce the Status Signals Paradox: When making new friends, people tend to think that displaying high-status markers of themselves (e.g., a BMW, a Tag Heuer watch) will make them more attractive to others than neutral markers (e.g., a Honda, a generic brand watch); however, from the perspective of would-be friends, individuals who display high-status markers are found to be less attractive as new friends than those with neutral status markers. Six studies provide converging evidence of the status signals paradox
%K social comparison
%K presenter paradox
%K decision-making
%K naive realism
%U https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1948550618783712