The Status Game

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Will: I was very angry about religion when i wrote my first book. That has changed enormously o me. My wife still talks about the old catholic guilt thing. It still's got a bit of a hook in her, and i just find that extraordinary. The status game is an easy way to make people stop lashing out at each other. If this group wins, my group loses. O try to experience the world consciously as groups sharing trade office ecaus its,. a much less toxic way of seeing the world.

Will Storr is an award winning journalist and author. His book ‘The Status Game’ transforms our understanding of human nature by demonstrating how our unconscious desire for status ultimately drives our behaviour. Important Links:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/wstorr?s=21&t=ZdtIqP9eE3_a5qZocDjEXQ
Website: https://willstorr.com
The Science of Storytelling: https://www.thescienceofstorytelling.com

Show Notes:

Will’s origin story
The strange case of David Irving
The fundamental nature of status games
The Stanford prison experiment and dominance games
The status games played by cults
Luxury beliefs
Why we are all moral hypocrites
The importance of being funny
Social status and socioeconomic status
Human OS and the education system
How status seeking leads to the “very best of human nature”
The murderous nature of reputation destruction
The post WW1 humiliation of Germany
Loaded magazine
Finding the true reason behind seemingly crazy beliefs
The value of religion
Trading status
Spreading humility
Why we could be wrong about our closest beliefs

Books Mentioned:

The Unpersuadables: Adventures with the Enemies of Science; by Will Storr
The Lucifer Principle: A Scientific Expedition into the Forces of History; by Howard Bloom
The Genius of the Beast: A Radical Re-Vision of Capitalism; by Howard Bloom
The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous; by Joseph Henrich
The Science of Storytelling; by Will Storr
Slaughterhouse-Five; by Kurt Vonnegut
Selfie: How We Became so Self-Obsessed and What It’s Doing to Us; by Will Storr
The Status Game: On Social Position and How We Use It; by Will Storr