The effect of subjective social status on depressive thinking: An experimental examination Torben Schubert a , Philipp Süssenbach b , Sarina J. Schäfer c , Frank Euteneuer a,n a Division of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, Philipps-University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany b Division of Psychological Methods, Philipps-University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany c Division of Social Psychology, Philipps-University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany article info Article history: Received 6 December 2015 Received in revised form 9 February 2016 Accepted 23 April 2016 Available online 25 April 2016 abstract Subjective social status (SSS) predicts health outcomes above and beyond objective measures of social status. Both objective and subjective measures of social status are strongly related with depression. Cognitive mechanisms such as depressive cognitions, rumination, and a negative cognitive style are seen as both concomitant and antecedent to depression. This experiment examined the causal role of SSS in developing depressive thinking. Participants were randomly assigned to a low and a high status group and followed a manipulation procedure targeting their SSS. Depressive thinking was subsequently as- sessed by depressive cognitions, stress-reactive state rumination and negative cognitive style. Low status participants exhibited higher levels of depressive cognitions and rumination compared to their high status counterparts, but both groups did not differ regarding their cognitive style. Findings support the causal nature of the relationship between SSS and depressive thinking. Several mechanisms of how low SSS may lead to depression are discussed. & 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction A person's relative position in society shapes their actions, thoughts and perspectives on the world. Prior psychological re- search highlighted the impact of people's social positions on physical and mental health (e.g. Adler et al., 1994). To explore the exact role one's social status plays in predicting health, a measure of subjective social status (SSS) was developed that assesses a person's subjective rank relative to others in the socioeconomic hierarchy (Adler et al., 2000). In recent years, SSS was not only found to be related to a vast amount of physiological and psy- chological health outcomes (for a review, see Euteneuer, 2014) but also to predict health beyond objective measures of socioeconomic status (SES) such as income, education, and occupation (Singh- Manoux et al., 2005). Research in this area has shown that SES is a predictor of depression (Lorant et al., 2003) and cross-sectional studies found a robust relation between SSS and depression (e.g., Scott et al., 2014). Although a recent prospective study suggests a causal effect of SSS on depressive symptoms (Diaz et al., 2014), further research is still needed to move beyond correlation to es- tablish causation. Since Beck (1967) proposed the first cognitive theory of depression, much research has been conducted on cognitive me- chanisms among people with depression. Beck identified various negative thoughts (e.g. “I am worthless”) to be a typical cognitive content among depressed people. In addition to these depressive cognitions, cognitive processes such as stress-reactive rumination and negative cognitive style were found to be strong predictors of depression onset (Robinson and Alloy, 2003). People who rumi- nate rehearse negative cognitive content after stressful events (Nolen-Hoeksema et al., 1994). People with a negative cognitive style attribute negative life events to stable (enduring) and global (widespread) causes leading to the inference of further negative consequences and negative self-worth implications (Abramson et al., 1989). Depressive cognitions refer to cognitive content that is distinct from but related to these cognitive processes (for a review, see Gotlib and Joormann, 2010). However, depressive cognitions, rumination, and negative cognitive style predict depression in- dependently and are commonly conceptualized in a diathesis- stress-account (Hyde et al., 2008). Although experimental manipulation of individuals' SSS has been shown to affect behaviors and abilities (e.g. empathic accu- racy; Kraus et al., 2010) the impact of SSS on depression or health- relevant outcomes has not yet been studied experimentally. The present study examined the impact of experimentally manipu- lated SSS (i.e. low SSS vs. high SSS) on depressive cognitions, ru- mination, and negative cognitive style. By manipulating SSS, we intended to provide experimental support for the hypothesis that Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/psychres Psychiatry Research http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2016.04.081 0165-1781/& 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved. n Corresponding author. E-mail address: frank.euteneuer@staff.uni-marburg.de (F. Euteneuer). Psychiatry Research 241 (2016) 22–25