Interesting interview and discussion here. Yes, it is long. The transcript is quickly readable though.
https://www.econtalk.org/the-status-game-with-will-storr/#audio-highlights
Here is the opener to give you a feel:
What this book is about, it's more than just the Adam Smith insight. It's about our perennial, constant desire to judge ourselves, judge others, and give ourselves a score in the game of life because of our status and how we're treated. So, talk about what you mean by 'life is a game' and the status game in particular.
Will Storr: Yeah. So the thesis is that the conscious experience of human life is a story. That's how we experience our life, moment to moment, where they're kind of here at the center's unfolding narrative. But the subconscious treats our lives in a different way. And so, when I'm talking about life being a game, that's what it's doing. There's a famous neuroscientist called Chris Frith I quote in the book, who says that the brain treats your environment as a reward space, and it draws you towards the things that you need and pushes you away from the things you don't need. And, that's what the subconscious brain is constantly doing.
And, the story of life is: we're telling a story and justifying and rationalizing those movements back and forth. And, the three big things that humans want is--like all living things, we want to survive, obviously, and we want to reproduce.
But, in order to do that, humans have these other two very profound urges. The first one is connection. We want to connect with people like us, which is not primarily the subject of this book, but equally important.
And, the second one is status: We need to feel that we are being of value to other humans, because we're this sort of collective, tribal, highly cooperative ape. So, we're highly motivated by signals that we are contributing to the great cooperative game of human life.
So, that is a subconscious obsession. We need to feel that we are valued or respected--or however you want to phrase it--that we have status. And, when we don't feel like that, we immediately feel distress. And, when we experience low status in the chronic sense, we get mentally ill, we get physically ill.
So, the book is really arguing that status is not a want, it's a need.
I think his thesis is true that status is a huge driver of human behavior. I've always noticed that while people condemn one set of people for their status driven behavior (like wealth), they usually just are in a different status game with that--like being the least wealth-status person (i.e. egalitarian). We see it with virtue signaling all the time. People move from one game to another (why they do that is an interesting discussion in and of itself, along with the question of whether status in any one realm is objectively "better" than another).
That said, I don't like it. I've spent a good amount of time in my adult years trying to become status-neutral. This discussion challenges my efforts as either self-deluded or just a move into another status game. That would suck but maybe it's true.
To link this to other threads, I think part of the appeal of Jesus in the New Testament is that he seems to be countenancing against status. Of course, one of the turnoffs of most religion is that the practitioners tend to sneak religious status in, ranking themselves over others as better Christians, etc. In fact, maybe the notion of Heaven and Hell are just plays towards human need for status and hierarchy.
Which brings me to another question: where does this desire to not judge based on status come from? Why do we so strongly desire to not judge people if it is a human biological need to have status?
Need a bong and some Boone's Farm.
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