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Downfall of “Tall Poppies”

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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

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Synonyms

Envy; Inferiority; Resentment; Schadenfreude; Status-leveling

Definition

A status-undermining misfortune suffered by another or others of higher relative status, or “tall poppies.”

Introduction

Higher-status people enjoy greater access to high-quality mates and other resources than those of lower status (Buss 1999). Thus, people have evolved to maximize their status relative to competitors, as natural selection favors people with greater reproductive success than others in the local environment (Buss 1999, 2000). One way people of lower status can decrease the status gap between themselves and their rivals is prestige-enhancing skill building – that is, they can “build themselves up.” Another way to accomplish the same status-leveling goal, however, is by promoting status-decreasing misfortunes among one’s rivals, thereby leveling the others down (Buss 1999, 2000; van de Ven et al. 2009; van de Ven et al. 2014). The focus of this entry will be on the latter route to narrowing...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Missouri State University, Springfield, MO, USA

    Charles Hoogland

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  1. Charles Hoogland
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Correspondence to Charles Hoogland .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland Univ Dept of Psycholgy, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana Weekes-Shackelford

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  3. Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

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Hoogland, C. (2016). Downfall of “Tall Poppies”. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1466-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1466-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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