The Status Game by Will Store

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will store is one of the greatest science writers working to day, full stop. He's been a guest before talking about his previous books, the unpersuadable and selfy. Will explains in the status game that this is on the mother board it's an inescapable part of human Cognition. We all wish to elevate our status and avoid losing whatever status we currently perceive ourselves to have. It is as inescapable as the motivation to warm yourself when you growing cold or cool yourself when you grow hot. And we are deeply motivated to win this game, to earn pride and fame and adoration, respect and maintain our hard earned status.

In this episode we welcome back author Will Storr whose new book, The Status Game, feels like required reading for anyone confused, curious, or worried about how politics, cults, conspiracy theories communities, social media, religious fundamentalism, polarization, and extremism are affecting us - everywhere, on and offline, across cultures, and across the world.

What is The Status Game? It’s our primate propensity to perpetually pursue points that will provide a higher level of regard among the people who can (if we provoked such a response) take those points away. And deeper still, it’s the propensity to, once we find a group of people who regularly give us those points, care about what they think more than just about anything else.

In the interview, we discuss our inescapable obsession with reputation and why we are deeply motivated to avoid losing this game through the fear of shame, ostracism, embarrassment, and humiliation while also deeply motivated to win this game by earning what will provide pride, fame, adoration, respect, and status.