Local encounters in which a group difference happens to coincide with a resource difference can generate widely shared beliefs that the difference indicates competence.
Ridgeway's account explains where status characteristics come from rather than assuming them. If an arbitrary trait correlates locally with advantage, encounters teach both parties to expect competence from one side, and each carries the expectation into further encounters, spreading a belief that nobody held at the start.
In practice
- A firm where one department has better tooling acquires a belief that its people are stronger, which then survives the tooling.
- A trait that started as a proxy for opportunity is treated a generation later as a proxy for ability.