Name: Sonja Tremont-Morgan
Profession: Philanthropist
Tremont-Morgan, once married to a descendant of J.P. Morgan and John Adams, is very aware of social status, having put herself through college and now donating her energy and resources to benefits around the world. Not one to take her current lifestyle for granted, she says, "Education is a great luxury."
Collaborating for just a few minutes with someone who dominates the assignment can increase your cardiovascular reactivity to stress. Study participants who worked with an assertive partner and then performed a tension-inducing follow-up task saw a higher increase in systolic blood pressure than those paired with a deferential teammate.
Feeling high on the totem pole could spare you a lot of sneezes. A study in which people were exposed to a virus and then quarantined showed that those who rated their socioeconomic status (SES) the lowest were much more likely to come down with sniffles than were others. Less sound sleep among those low on the ladder partially caused the sickening effect.
Even without bling, your body exudes elaborate clues to wealth. Watching someone's casual conversational behavior for only a minute provides enough info to guess his SES better than chance. While those with fewer resources show more signs of engagement, such as nodding and laughing, the well-heeled remain aloof.
Growing up downtrodden may permanently sensitize you to social threats. Young adults raised by parents with low SES react more emotionally to angry faces than do others.
Why do some people step up their game after an embarrassing defeat while others roll over and play dead? Social anxiety has a big role. Although baseline testosterone levels—associated with dominance—are no lower in the socially anxious, these worriers respond to drops in status with dips in the hormone and a submissive white flag.
