Living the high life: social status influences real estate decision making

Social status is associated with the vertical spatial dimension, with people conceptualizing higher social status with higher vertical positions. Two experiments tested whether this association influences relatively real-world decisions about others by asking participants to act as real estate agents, aiding in the relocation of clients who explicitly or implicitly varied in social status. Across experiments, higher status clients were placed into higher elevation housing options. This influence of social status persisted when strategy-aware participants were removed from analysis, and was not influenced by individual differences in social dominance or locus of control. Abstract concepts of social status are understood through associations with vertical space, and these mapping of abstract concepts to concrete percepts prove influential in guiding daily decisions.