Dominance and prestige in romantic relationships: Actor and partner links to relationship quality

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Creator
  • Körner, Robert
  • Murphy, Brett A.
    • Affiliation: College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience
  • Zverling, Erez
    • Other Affiliation: School of Psychology, College of Law and Business, Ramat Gan, Israel
  • Sha’ked, Ami
    • Other Affiliation: School of Psychology, College of Law and Business, Ramat Gan, Israel
  • Schütz, Astrid
    • Other Affiliation: Department of Psychology, Otto-Friedrich-University of Bamberg, Bamberg, Germany
Abstract
  • Dominance and prestige reflect different forms of power and can affect relationship outcomes. Whereas dominance is a conflict-oriented way of dealing with people and grabbing status, prestige is derived from respect and esteem that is granted by others due to superior skills and knowledge. In this research, we tested three partially competing perspectives on potential associations of dominance and prestige with relationship quality (RQ). Sociobiological perspectives suggest that both concepts ensure the provision of valuable resources, and thus predict that both dominance and prestige would be positively linked to RQ. From a sociocultural perspective, men are expected to be dominant and prestigious whereas being dominant (and perhaps being prestigious) would violate the feminine gender-role stereotype; thus, both variables should relate positively to RQ only for men. From a personality perspective, dominance is characterized by undesirable attributes, whereas prestige is characterized by more desirable attributes; as such, only prestige should be positively related to RQ. We conducted four studies with individuals in romantic relationships in three different countries (Germany, Israel, and the US; Ntotal = 2,010 participants). The participants completed measures of dominance-prestige (as general attributes, as relationship-specific attributes, or in comparison with their partner) and measures of RQ. Although not entirely consistent across studies, our results were most consistent with the personality-based perspective. Prestige seems to benefit a relationship for both actors and partners whereas dominance is detrimental to relationship happiness. Yet, as some results showed that the negative link between dominance and RQ was stronger for women than for men, and the positive link between prestige and RQ was weaker for women than for men; thus some weak support for the sociocultural perspective was also found.
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Resource type
  • Article
Rights statement
  • In Copyright
Rights holder
  • SAGE Publications
License
  • Attribution 4.0 International
Journal title
  • Journal of Social and Personal Relationships
Journal volume
  • 41
Journal issue
  • 1
Page start
  • 302
Page end
  • 332
Funder
  • John Templeton Foundation Grant (for Study 4)
ISSN
  • 0265-4075
  • 1460-3608
Copyright date
  • 2023
Publisher
  • SAGE Publications

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