A growing body of research suggests that status concerns vary depending on the gender of interested parties.

First, men tend to care more about status than women do. Using a university sponsored fundraising campaign, researchers Bruno S. Frey and Stephan Meier of the University of Zurich examined how social-comparison information affected contribution rates.

Male students who learned that a high percentage of students had contributed to the campaign were more likely to make a contribution than were female students who received the same information.

In the context of negotiation, professors John Rizzo of Stony Brook University and Richard Zeckhauser of Harvard University asked a group of young physicians about their reference groups and salary aspirations.