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Recognition has grown that moral behavior (e.g., generosity) plays a role in status attainment, yet
it remains unclear how, why, and when demonstrating moral characteristics enhances status.
Drawing on philosophy, anthropology, psychology, and organizational behavior, I critically
review a third route to attaining status: virtue, and propose a moral virtue theory of status
attainment to provide a generalized account of the role of morality in status attainment. The
moral virtue theory posits that acts of virtue elicit feelings of warmth and admiration (for virtue),
and willing deference, towards the virtuous actor. I further consider how the scope and priority
of moralities and virtues endorsed by a moral community are bound by culture to affect which
moral characteristics enhance status. In particular, I theorize that virtues pertaining to community
(e.g., humility) and divinity (e.g., cleanliness) are more effective to attain status in collectivistic
cultures; whereas virtues pertaining to autonomy (e.g., rights) are more effective to attain status
in individualistic cultures. Four experimental studies were conducted to examine the proposed
theory. Studies 1 to 3 found that demonstrating a variety of virtues, including humility,
cleanliness, and (advocating for human) rights, elicited admiration for virtue, which in turn led a
virtuous actor to attain status. Expressing humility and cleanliness was more effective in
attaining status in a collectivistic culture (India) than in an individualistic culture (the U.S.).
Importantly, the positive impact of virtues on status attainment generally did not depend on the
virtuous actor's levels of competence. Study 4 showed that expressing humility led people to see
the humble actor as a more desirable leader and to be influenced by the humble actor in a
collaborative cognitive task. Humility and cultural self-construals interacted to affect the actor's
status through admiration for virtue. Specifically, individuals with high interdependent selfconstruals
admired humility to a greater degree than those with low interdependent self
