There has never been a more exciting time to study social status and hierarchy. Over the past several decades, researchers from across the social sciences have come to recognize the importance, complexity, and ubiquity of individual differences in social rank. These scholars have made great strides in shedding light on such fascinating yet long perplexing questions as: Why are societies everywhere structured hierarchically? What function might hierarchy serve, for individuals and for groups? How do rank differences emerge, and what determines who rises to the top? What are the psychological, neural, and hormonal mechanisms that underlie status attainment? What are the consequences of high and low rank on relationships, mating, and reproductive success? Psychologists, neuroscientists, health researchers, sociologists, anthropologists, and management scientists are working together to seek answers to these questions, and to build a comprehensive and interdisciplinary science of the psychological underpinnings of social status.