National Network for Equitable Library Service

What makes us like some things and dislike others? What drives our political and moral biases? What shapes how we behave in a group? What makes you, you? For centuries, philosophers and scholars theorized that power and money were the two driving influences in human behavior. In The Status Game, bestselling author Will Storr radically turns this thinking on its head by arguing that it is our unquenchable craving for status that defines who we are. From our days as hunter-gatherers to our modern day roles as workers in a globalized economy and stay-at-home parents, status has been wired into every decision that we make. A wealth of research now shows that how much of it we possess dramatically affects not only our happiness and wellbeing but also our physical health - and without sufficient status, we fall ill more frequently and with greater severity, and live shorter lives. It's an unconscious psychological obsession that drives the best and worst of us: our innovation, arts and civilization as well as our murders, wars and genocides. But why has status become the ultimate prize? And what happens if it's taken away from us? Drawing together a decade of research from the cutting-edge of psychology alongside immersive, first-person narrative reporting, The Status Game is a radical rethink of human psychology that will change how you see others - and how they see you.