Jun 27 2008
Self-Promotion and Status
Many people are unaware and/or don’t like to acknowledge that they care about their status, their social standing. Sure, in our culture we oft hear the motto, “who cares what other people think – be true to yourself.” And yet people still buy fancy cars barely within their budget; they still shop for the latest fashion. (The old fashion is apparently just too pedestrian.) In a sense, it is within our nature to strive to be elite in some shape or form: in our abilities, our income, our knowledge, our relations, our possessions.
In a book I recently finished reading, Macachiavellian Intelligence: How Rhesus Macaques and Humans Have Conquered the World, by Dario Maelstripieri, I learned how, upon suffering a beat-down from a higher ranking monkey, the beaten rhesus macaque will frequently immediately turn to give a lesser monkey a beating. Perhaps this proves he/she isn’t vulnerable to being displaced from below and/or solidifies his/her current position.
I speculate that because social position is relative, when feeling socially beaten a human being may undertake one, or both, of two general strategies to restore their perception of status.
1) Beat down others: discredit the source of your beating and talk badly about rivals past, present, and future.
2) Engage in activities that could lift your status in the eyes of others.
In other lingo, either kick the box from beneath the feet of your competitors, or find a bigger box for yourself.
In a ScienceDaily article posted today, The High Cost Of Low Status: Feeling Powerless Leads To Expensive Purchases you will read,
Feeling powerless can trigger strong desires to purchase products that convey high status, according to new research. . . .
In three experiments, the authors asked participants to either describe a situation where they had power over another person or one in which someone had power over them. Then the researchers showed them items and asked how much they would be willing to pay.
After recalling situations where they were powerless, participants were willing to pay more for items that signal status, like silk ties and fur coats, but not products like minivans and dryers. They also agreed to pay more for a framed picture of their university if it was portrayed as rare and exclusive.
Does the above partly explain why high-status whites might look at blacks sporting “gaudy bling” and find it ridiculous? Pfft! What are they trying to prove!?
We are intelligent animals that at least intuitively understand that status means connections and power, which brings better access to quality resources. Sure, in the poorest of neighborhoods two males may actually fight to prove who is the bigger man. In the richest of neighborhoods one male may instead buy out his rival’s company. Our unconscious schemings on how to rise above – not the highest, but our peers – is limited only by our imaginations.
As I am exploring via my website “An Almighty Alpha,” and in blog postings in that category here, the “religious” impetus to form an alliance with a great, invisible leader, may also reflect this theme. When they feel beaten, many people do turn to religion.
I am somebody. And that somebody, like it or not, is reflected in the eyes of others, particularly my peers.
