High-status choices carry an alibi of being exemplary regardless of actual merit

Evidence

Emulation is a safe bet, but not a sure one. It can fail where groups strictly enforce status integrity. Individuals taking part in higher-status conventions without the accepted levels of capital are castigated as impostors. But aspirants always have a built-in alibi for emulation: high-status people are successful, so their lifestyle choices, whether yoga, Gucci loafers, or paleo diets, must be the right way to live. Our superiors have more money and information, and better skills, and this positions their choices as exemplary references. When the robber barons emerged in the late nineteenth century as the first ultrarich Americans, they had no clear guide on how to build palatial homes, so they just copied the architecture of wealthy European families. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 171

Categorization

• QUESTION: Does the success-alibi logic apply even when the high-status example plainly fails as lived practice, e.g. a billionaire yogi with a poor marriage or health? These forms have no better rational claim on followers yet still get emulated.
• XREF: connects to: Ascribed high status lets the advantaged claim status without visible effort or symbols — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 286; Bystanders extend deference and rewards based on perceived rank rather than actual merit — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 48; Higher-status people receive more credit for identical work — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 68 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Bystanders extend deference and rewards based on perceived rank rather than actual merit #expands (0.88) — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 48
• Ascribed high status lets the advantaged claim status without visible effort or symbols #expands (0.82) — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 286