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Decius comments on What if "status" IS a terminal value for most people? - Less Wrong Discussion
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What would evidence for or against 'people in general view status as a terminal goal' look like?
They do things that gain them status at the EXPENSE of their other values.
Status were a powerful motivator, even more so that material goods/money. Money were spent for status-raising activities.
(those two are actually the case, if my memory doesn't fail me.)
How would that be different if status was an instrumental goal, and was simply perceived to be more instrumental than the time and money spent towards acquiring it? (The actual instrumental value of status is irrelevant...)
Money has great, and nearly universal, instrumental value. That people give up money for status is not proof that status is terminal, but it's bayesian evidence.
Statues also has instrumental value. People give up status for money as well.
One possibility is that people are performing arbitrage between status and money, as the relative costs and instrumental value of status and money change for them. Another is that they are both terminal values competing for each other. I see no way to distinguish between the two.