Status anxiety extends to being surpassed by one’s own peers and neighbors

Evidence

Equality of opportunity, it appears, is inherently dangerous in this respect: There is the risk that friends, neighbors, or subordinates will surpass one in status. O’Hara has this on his mind. Some of the people who rise in status are nice, but: … You get other ones, the minute they get a little, they get big-headed and they think they’re better than the other ones—where they’re still—to me they’re worse than the middle class. I mean, they should get down, because they’re just showing their illiteracy—that’s all they’re doing. — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 2244

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Identity anxiety is really worry about being valued by others — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 290