We show evidence that a rise in social status (e.g., receiving a prize) has both positive and negative causal effects on recipients’ longevity, by using a dataset that covers Japan's two most prestigious and traditional literary recognitions. Although the two prizes share several characteristics, there exists the key difference that one of them is awarded to yet unknown or emerging novelists while the candidates for the other include a larger number of already established novelists. The main results of Cox's proportional hazard model analysis reveal that (1) the recipients of the prize for yet unknown or emerging novelists exhibit lower mortality than unsuccessful nominees, and the increase in longevity is estimated at 1.7 years; (2) by contrast, the recipients of the prize mainly for more established novelists report higher mortality than unsuccessful nominees, and the decrease in longevity is estimated at 5.3 years. We discuss with additional empirical analysis that we are likely to find a life-prolonging effect from receiving a prize when candidates belong to a lower social stratum. In so doing, this study provides narrative explanations for why earlier studies show conflicting relationships between receiving a prize and recipients’ longevity.

通过使用涵盖日本两个最负盛名和传统文学认可的数据集，我们证明了社会地位的提高（例如，获得奖金）对接受者的长寿既有正因也有负因果关系。尽管这两个奖项具有几个特点，但存在一个关键区别，其中一个奖项是授予尚未知名或新兴的小说家，而另一个奖项的候选人则包括大量已经建立的小说家。Cox比例风险模型分析的主要结果表明该奖项的是：（1）收件人未知的或新兴的小说家表现出更低的比不成功的被提名人的死亡率，以及增加长寿估计为1.7年；（2）相反，该奖项的获得者主要是较有经验的小说家，他们的死亡率比未提名的人更高，而寿命的缩短估计为5.3年。我们通过其他实证分析来讨论，当候选人属于较低的社会阶层时，我们很可能会从获得奖品中获得延长寿命的效果。通过这样做，本研究提供了叙事解释，说明了为什么较早的研究显示奖品与获奖者的寿命之间存在相互矛盾的关系。