Year: 2014
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Low social status increases risk of disease due, in part, to the psychosocial stress that accompanies feeling subordinate or poor. Previous studies report that chronic stress and chronically elevated cortisol can impair cardiovascular and immune function. We test whether lower status is more benign in small-scale, relatively egalitarian societies, where leaders lack coercive authority and there is minimal material wealth to contest. METHODOLOGY: Among Tsimane' forager-horticulturalists of lowland Bolivia, we compare informal political influence among men with urinary cortisol, immune activation (innate and acquired), and morbidity as assessed during routine medical exams. RESULTS: After controlling for potential confounds, we find that politically influential men have lower cortisol, and that this association is partly attributable to access to social support. Cortisol is positively associated with men's income, which may reflect chronic psychosocial stress from market involvement. Greater influence is also associated with lower probability of respiratory infection, which is a frequent source of morbidity among Tsimane'. Among men who lost influence over a 4-year period, cortisol and probability of respiratory infection were higher the greater the decline in influence. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS: Deleterious effects of low status on health are not merely 'diseases of civilization' but may result from how (even subtle) status differences structure human behavior.
DOI: 10.1093/emph/eou021
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,629
OpenAlex ID: W2147238962