Social Status Wars
Posted on April 28, 2009 by Wilda
Imagine yourself walking down a crowded street, say someplace in beautiful San Francisco, and maneuvering through oncoming tides of passersby. Some people move aside to let you pass, others you walk around. Occasionally there are times when you almost bump into someone, then pause for a moment in front of each other before simultaneously turning and edging sideways while muttering apologies especially evident when it happens in a narrow doorway or a hall . How do you know that one person will move out of your way, while another one will keep walking right into you. By rapidly and unconsciously evaluating the status of passersby relative to your own. All human interactions are governed by the continual adjustment of status. Status is the currency of human communication. Status is a relative measure - to gain higher status I can increase mine or decrease everyone else s. Most people are constantly and unconsciously engaged in status wars and are highly skilled at it. Such wars can be fought for either a higher status natural leaders or for a lower status victims ...