Six months ago, I wrote about airlines’ new policies of dividing cabins into as many as 9 different tiers or classes of customers:

But even more important is the “perp” walk effect. By boarding last, you get to walk down the entire plane and put yourself on display as the poor person who can’t afford a real seat. The intent is to make you look bad relative to others.

Source: How airlines use intimidation to persuade you to spend more money – SocialPanic

Now, researchers are saying the same thing:

Once on the plane, passengers can see where they fit in the hierarchy, with the seats getting smaller and thinner and legroom tighter with each passing row.

….

“Airplanes are the physical embodiment of a status hierarchy,” said Keith Payne, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the author of “The Broken Ladder: How Inequality Affects the Way We Think, Live and Die.”

Source: No class outside first class? Flight tiers can lead to unruly passengers, research shows