Even high status is contextual and can vanish with shifting audiences

Evidence

Our status position is always contextual, based on how we are treated in a particular time and place. Lassie may be a beloved dog in her hometown, but ignored in tonier parts of Capital City. Bob Dylan’s “Ballad of a Thin Man” mocks the middle-class journalist Mr. Jones, who is outraged to be treated as a low-status “freak” when interloping in the demimonde. Our status position is always contingent and can change over time. Jack Nicholson, one of the most beloved actors in American cinema during the seventies, lost status during the Brat Pack teen-movie era of the eighties. After seeing the 1986 comedy Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, he vented: “Well, that movie made me feel totally irrelevant to anything that any audience could want and 119 years old… . I literally walked out of there thinking my days are numbered. These people are trying to kill me.” — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 55

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Status signaling is only necessary under information asymmetry with strangers. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 197; People trade off imitation against distinction based on their status position — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 182; Ascribed high status lets the advantaged claim status without visible effort or symbols — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 286 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• High status requires others believing one possesses rare, valuable talents #qualifies (0.78) — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 78
• Distinctiveness is tolerated only for those who already have high status #qualifies (0.76) — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 175
• People trade off imitation against distinction based on their status position #qualifies (0.75) — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 182
• Ascribed high status lets the advantaged claim status without visible effort or symbols #complicates (0.74) — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 286
• Prejudice can show as lowered evaluation rather than outright negativity toward high-status roles #expands (0.74)