People naturally feel a desire to do nice things for people who they perceive as high status. This is because people with lots of money/power/influence have an outsized ability to influence you (for good or bad), so it’s often worthwhile to be in their good graces. This means it’s good to be high-status for the benefits of people treating you better (and if you’re high-status, then there’s a second-order effect from your friends being high-status). Some people seek status instrumentally in this way, but it’s also a feel-good in the same way as food or sex or comfort, so people also seek status just because it feels good.
Status signaling is somewhat different from other kinds of signaling since people’s perception of your status is in itself a form of status.
This is because people with lots of money/power/influence have an outsized ability to influence you (for good or bad), so it’s often worthwhile to be in their good graces.
I already mentioned that in the OP. But what about fashion? Why do people feel a desire to do nice things for people who follow the newest fashion?
Your point 1 makes sense. But as for your point 2, it seems to me that the observer would need to have just as good social skills in order to tell who is wearing the newest fashion.
Good catch, but maybe recognizing something fashionable is easier than setting it up?
Or maybe, a near miss is much worse than a safe choice, so the people who are not entirely sure will play it safe, but will be impressed by those who take the risk and don’t get laughed at.
The real rules are even more complicated, there is no such thing as universally fashionable; the choice must fit the social situation—you wouldn’t play sport dressed the same way you would go to an opera. The social situation includes other people; if you undershoot, you look like a loser, if you overshoot, you look like you try too hard; the optimum is to overshoot just by little: to look better but in a deniable way.
I think the general rules are that (1) people can judge the level slightly above them, but can’t compare levels too high above them; and (2) trying too hard and getting it wrong is worse than not trying, in the eyes of those qualified to judge you. So you judge those around your level directly, and those too high by how other people higher than you judge them.
People naturally feel a desire to do nice things for people who they perceive as high status. This is because people with lots of money/power/influence have an outsized ability to influence you (for good or bad), so it’s often worthwhile to be in their good graces. This means it’s good to be high-status for the benefits of people treating you better (and if you’re high-status, then there’s a second-order effect from your friends being high-status). Some people seek status instrumentally in this way, but it’s also a feel-good in the same way as food or sex or comfort, so people also seek status just because it feels good.
Status signaling is somewhat different from other kinds of signaling since people’s perception of your status is in itself a form of status.
Thanks for the reply.
I already mentioned that in the OP. But what about fashion? Why do people feel a desire to do nice things for people who follow the newest fashion?
People who follow the newest fashion are likely to
be rich (newest fashion is often expensive)
have good social skills (to successfully decode what the newest fashion is)
Both these things make them potentially useful allies and dangerous enemies.
Your point 1 makes sense. But as for your point 2, it seems to me that the observer would need to have just as good social skills in order to tell who is wearing the newest fashion.
Good catch, but maybe recognizing something fashionable is easier than setting it up?
Or maybe, a near miss is much worse than a safe choice, so the people who are not entirely sure will play it safe, but will be impressed by those who take the risk and don’t get laughed at.
The real rules are even more complicated, there is no such thing as universally fashionable; the choice must fit the social situation—you wouldn’t play sport dressed the same way you would go to an opera. The social situation includes other people; if you undershoot, you look like a loser, if you overshoot, you look like you try too hard; the optimum is to overshoot just by little: to look better but in a deniable way.
I think the general rules are that (1) people can judge the level slightly above them, but can’t compare levels too high above them; and (2) trying too hard and getting it wrong is worse than not trying, in the eyes of those qualified to judge you. So you judge those around your level directly, and those too high by how other people higher than you judge them.
(Or maybe I don’t actually understand it.)