Are You Getting Out of the Status Game?

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There are three different genres of status game that humans generally play. Dominance is aggression or the threat of it; we still do that. The other way you could end status and be seen as a valuable person is by being good at stuff. I really believe that we make a fundamental mistake when we condescend to the status urge. But it's also the best of human nature. You don't get maternity without the status game. It's in finding a healthy life affirming connection, inducing creative version of it.

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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