...This chapter examines the specific beliefs and actions of German leaders in the Weltpolitik era to determine whether and how status concerns motivated German decision making during the period. It first provides an overview of the origins and character of Germany's world policy as well as the roots...

... the relationship between status dissatisfaction and war, if and how status concerns motivated German decision making during the Weltpolitik era, and the link between heightened status concerns and the escalation of commitment. The book concludes by discussing four broad lessons that can be drawn from the findings...

...This chapter explores the behavioral microfoundations of status dissatisfaction theory by conducting two simultaneously fielded experiments in which status concerns were randomly assigned prior to an “escalation of commitment” task. The first study replicates and extends a sunk costs experiment...

... compare themselves to, or whether South Africa and the United States are likely to compare themselves to similar groups of countries. The chapter shows that the types of comparisons that are made—who the “reference groups” are—have important implications for how status concerns are manifested...

...This chapter examines whether status concerns lead decision makers to value status more highly by looking at three separate sets of decisions: Russia's decision to aggressively back Serbia in the 1914 July Crisis, Britain's decision to collude with Israel and France in launching the 1956 Suez...