Rich and famous people exude charisma, but there are other behaviours or traits that assist in climbing the social ladder, scientists say.

This is what’s required to climb to the top

Intelligence and honesty are universal qualities that people value, according to a recent research that involved over 2,700 people from 14 nations. These qualities heighten a person’s social status.

The study also demonstrated that double standards in regard to behaviours of women and men do exists: Males are given higher status for behaviours that cause  status of females to plunge.

David Buss, evolutionary psychologist and the study’s lead author, pointed out that humans live in a highly social world, where social ranking determines nearly everything. Things like access to resources, ability to attract a quality mate, and even how long will you live is determined in a great extent by this social rank.

From the evolutionary point of view, people with higher social rank enjoy much greater chances of reproductive success, while people whose rank is low miss out or their opportunities are scarce.

How other people see you determines your social worth

In the study, scientists evaluated 240 factors and people’s view on them. These factors included behaviours, personal traits, and life events.

Certain qualities such as honesty, hard work, intelligence, being knowledgeable about a variety of things, assisting others, and good sense of humour increased a person’s value in the eyes of others.

The high societal value of leadership, bravery, and intelligence was universal among all cultures. At the same time types of qualities and behaviours that impose costs on others lower the societal value of a person: people who are known to steal, unclean, mean were seen as undesirables, as well as individuals bringing shame on one’s family or getting an STD. In ancient environments this could even mean death.

For men qualities such as bravery and protecting the vulnerable, taking risks to defend others, were more beneficial to a male’s status than to a woman’s. Women’s value was seen higher if she were attractive and a good homemaker.

If a person was unfaithful, both genders’ status suffered, but for women it was a considerably stronger drop, even in the more free and advanced cultures. A person who had a long-term partner was seen as higher in status, but for females the rise in the social value was higher. Faithfulness was seen as a giving a higher status to both males and females equally.

Some idiosyncrasies in social evaluations included views on practicing witchcraft: In Russia and the USA it made practically no difference to a person’s value, while in Zimbabwe it would lowered it dramatically. A good sense of humour didn’t add much in Eritrea, but gave a huge status boost in Poland, while in China and Japan only a moderate rise.

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