Status Concerns Drive Self‐Optimization: The Role of Status Seeking, Status Anxiety, and Competitive Working Climate

ABSTRACT In recent years, many sociological, psychological, and epidemiological studies have focused on the syndrome of social inequality, status concerns, and the emergence of social problems in affluent capitalist societies. The basic assumption is that increasing competitive pressures stress people and cause them to seek any small advantage in the status competition. Against this background, this study examines the relationship between status seeking, status anxiety, and a competitive working climate and the disposition to engage in self‐optimizing behavior. Using representative survey data from the working population in Germany ( N = 3551), we show that an individual's disposition to seek high status is positively associated with self‐optimization dispositions in the form of a greater willingness to use prescription drugs without medical necessity with the aim of enhancing cognitive performance. This effect is moderated by status anxiety and a competitive working climate—that is, anxious status seekers and status seekers in competitive jobs are particularly willing to self‐optimize. These findings underscore the importance of positive status experiences (feeling valued), especially for highly ambitious individuals, at the work place.