I think this is a great model for understanding status -- especially the transactional nature of it.
I hope the authors (or some other LWers) will elaborate on the different kinds of status transactions. It seems to me that status can be traded off for various other benefits -- money, sex, knowledge, favors. For example, conspicuous consumption is a way of exchanging money for status. Endorsements (think B-list celebrities) are a way of exchanging status for money. Powertalk is the art of trading status for knowledge and vice versa. Similarly, seductio... (read more)
Without taxonimizing, I would point in the general direction of rags-to-riches stories, which are aplenty, especially if you consider political power as riches (hitler and stalin were clearly geniuses at this). Also I think cults and cult leaders on a personal level are very good at some of these exchanges.
One specific example: I think celebrities who do "shocking things" that everybody "accidentally" finds out about exchange some "respectability" status for name recognition which they plow into their next money-making project. (e.g. what launched Paris Hilton's "career"? Might have been an accident, but with at least some celebs I think this is quite deliberate.)
I think this is a great model for understanding status -- especially the transactional nature of it.
I hope the authors (or some other LWers) will elaborate on the different kinds of status transactions. It seems to me that status can be traded off for various other benefits -- money, sex, knowledge, favors. For example, conspicuous consumption is a way of exchanging money for status. Endorsements (think B-list celebrities) are a way of exchanging status for money. Powertalk is the art of trading status for knowledge and vice versa. Similarly, seductio... (read more)