People rationalize status desires as quality and beauty preferences

Evidence

In hoping to deny the influence of status, however, our brains rationalize the attraction to status value using palatable alibis, such as the pursuit of high quality and beauty. In doing so we interpret inauthentic external desires as authentic demands from our heart. We then voice these alibis with pride as our deepest thoughts. As everyone obscures their status desire, it results in a lack of public discussion around status seeking, which in turn further propagates the status taboo and makes us ashamed of wanting status. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 294

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: A tight causal loop: inauthentic desires get reinterpreted as authentic, which suppresses public talk, which entrenches the taboo. Resistant to one-line summary and sits well beyond a mere factual observation.
• XREF: connects to: Status value alters both preferences and actual brain pleasure pathways — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 155; Status pursuit rationally outweighs practical utility in many consumer decisions — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 154; Status-seeking makes many choices nonrational yet still materially rewarding — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 187 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Desires and emotional comfort shape what people believe is true #corroborates (0.78) — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 99
• Status-seeking drives humans to comply with conventions that then reshape perception. #expands (0.74) — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 123
• Physically attractive people are judged superior on unrelated personality and character dimensions #expands (0.72) — Anthony G. Greenwald and Mahzarin R. Banaji, Implicit Social Cognition, 91