Belonging is a central human aspiration, one that has drawn attention from sociologists and social psychologists alike. Who is likely to realize this aspiration? This paper addresses that question by examining how “we-feeling”—the experience of gemeinschaft—is distributed within small groups. Previous research has argued that the feeling of belonging is positively related to a person’s social status through a cumulative advantage process. But high status can recast the responsibilities of group life as burdens if a person regards them as incongruent with his or her rank, and this can dim one’s feelings toward the group. This paper proposes that a “high-status penalty” diminishes we-feeling for high-ranking individuals, thereby concentrating we-feeling in the middle of a status hierarchy. It tests this theory using data from the Urban Communes Project, a survey of 60 naturally occurring communities. The findings suggest that status-incongruent responsibilities can suppress the benefits of status at the top of a hierarchy.

中文翻译：

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谁属于？地位如何影响Gemeinschaft的体验

属于人类的一项核心愿望，已引起社会学家和社会心理学家的关注。谁有可能实现这一愿望？本文通过研究如何在小组中分配“我们的感觉”（gemeinschaft的经验）来解决该问题。先前的研究认为，归属感通过累积优势过程与一个人的社会地位成正相关。但是，如果一个人认为他们的生活与自己的等级不符，那么高贵的身份可以将群体生活的责任重塑为负担，而这会使人对群体的感情变淡。本文提出“高地位惩罚”减少了高级人员的自我感觉，从而将自我感觉集中在地位等级的中间。它使用“城市公社计划”（Urban Communes Project）中的数据对60个自然社区进行了调查，对这一理论进行了检验。研究结果表明，与地位无关的责任可以抑制等级制度顶层的地位带来的好处。