Status is a zero-sum ranking, so everyone cannot rise simultaneously

Evidence

All of this demand for higher esteem, however, inherently engenders social conflict: Status is a relative ranking, so not everyone can simultaneously achieve a high position. Status is zero-sum. For every person who goes up, someone must go down. Outcomes can feel unfair when we fail to move up after achievements or fall down after others succeed. This umbrage is further amplified due to cognitive biases that make us overestimate our abilities. A company found that more than 40 percent of its engineers claimed to be in the top 5 percent of ability, and among college professors, 90 percent claimed to be “above average.” These minor delusions of grandeur intensify our desire for higher status by making us feel we deserve it. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 73

Categorization

• CANDY: Over 40 percent of engineers believe they’re in the top 5 percent of ability; 90 percent of professors believe they’re above average—a fun, immediately retellable stat about self-overestimation.
• XREF: The better-than-average effect stats connect to Keith Stanovich’s work on self-assessment overconfidence and to the Dunning-Kruger literature. — connects to: Achievement-based status only works when few attain the feat — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 302; Status is zero-sum and cannot rise for everyone at once — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 73; The hierarchy principle fails precisely where zero-sum thinking takes hold. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 681 (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Status is zero-sum and cannot rise for everyone at once #corroborates (1.00) — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 73
• Scarce advancement makes prosperity a zero-sum positional good #expands (0.85)
• The hierarchy principle fails precisely where zero-sum thinking takes hold. #complicates (0.75) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 681
• Deflationary self-protection by individuals is zero-sum against everyone else #exemplifies (0.75) — Mark Blyth, Austerity, 47