The Most Influential Person in the Room: Gender, Class, and Status in Groups

• In Event: Examining Gender Inequality through the Lens of Social Psychology

Abstract

Whose voice carries weight in group decision-making, and whose ideas are overlooked? Gender has long been established as a status characteristic shaping influence in task-oriented groups, but recent evidence suggesting women and men are now seen as equally competent raises questions about whether this remains true. Meanwhile, despite class being routinely cited alongside gender as a status characteristic, little experimental evidence directly establishes its role in shaping influence. Observational evidence suggests that professional-class men may reap greater gendered status advantages than their working-class counterparts. This study uses a novel survey experiment to examine how gender and class jointly shape perceived influence. In the study, participants watch a mock jury deliberation featuring four jurors — a professional-class man, a professional-class woman, a working-class man, and a working-class woman — and predict the jury’s verdict. We systematically vary which juror identity is assigned to each deliberation position across twenty-four experimental conditions, allowing us to estimate the influence attributed to each gender-class combination net of deliberation position. Pretest results (N=843) offer initial support for the hypothesis that the professional-class man is perceived as disproportionately influential. The full study will be fielded on WisconSays, a representative sample of 2,500 Wisconsin residents, in March 2026.

Authors

• Alexis Stewart, University of Wisconsin-Madison

• Chloe Grace Hart, University of Wisconsin-Madison