What Is Status?

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David Frum: Status is simply the feeling of being valued. He says we're all so chippy about our own status that we just don't like it at all if anybody was to admit that they were interested in it and we don'tlike it. "I think Mr. Taboo against ourselves, admitting it, you know, I think it's connected to the fact that we people don't like self-aggrandizing people," he says.

Sam Harris speaks with Will Storr about the role that status plays in human life and culture. They talk about the taboo around caring about status, egalitarianism, the perpetual insecurity of status, how we play multiple status games simultaneously, identity, social connection, dominance, virtue, success, status as an evolved mechanism, gossip, status and health, the consequences of humiliation, the role of social media, status and politics, conspiracy thinking, moral panics, status and philanthropy, and other topics.

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