Comment on Selfishness Signals Status

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:29:12 GMT

This is a reply to you chain of concerns about status, not this comment in particular:

I like that you're pushing for more rigor-- in nearly every case that is a good thing. Your concerns do need to be addressed. But I'm a little confused about why the concept is so foreign to you. Status isn't merely this theoretical concept used to explain behavior. At least for me it is a constant, pre-theoretical feature of social life. We should have a deep, well-defined theory of status but I don't think we need to to say a lot of meaningful things about it. I believe I'm an authoritative source on the status signals of the groups I'm a part of (and some universal signals) in the same way I'm an authoritative source on the English language-- it is a cultural practice I'm embedded in. I literally grew up with it (didn't you have popular and unpopular kids in grade school?) You're right that the status values for just about any behavior are highly dependent on context... it just the same way meaning can be in language. This is why it is often easy for someone from a different culture to screw up. Moreover, more subtle signals can often be read differently by different people (just as there is ambiguity in pragmatics).

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