Doppler Effect in Status Competition: The Impact of Status Momentum within Rank Ordered Hierarchies

Taking a dynamic lens to status competition, we examine how positive change in a competitor's rank- positive status momentum - impacts focal actors' judgments, decisions, performance and behaviors towards this competitor. Across five studies, ranging from a large archival study among professional tennis players and five experiments with varying contexts, we find that focal actors are more threatened by actors displaying positive status momentum compared to competitors who share the same objective rank but lack momentum. As a result of this threat, focal actors perform worse against opponents demonstrating status momentum compared to others both sharing the same objective rank but no momentum. We further find that focal actor's psychological projection of competitor's rank mediates the impact of status momentum on self-threat. Overall, by employing a dynamic approach to status, our research sheds light on how ranked actors react to the positive movement of others in a competitive rank-ordered hierarchy.