The History of Social Status.

You might not realize it, but a huge amount of what you do is driven by perceived social status. Many of the things you think you want right now, you may very well not actually want. And many of your drives might in fact be vestiges from our evolution long ago.
Tapping into this and understanding how it works can allow you to ‘hack’ it. And in doing that, you will be able to navigate any situation.
What exactly am I talking about? Read on…
1. Why Certain People Impress Us.
Have you ever wondered why we find certain people physically attractive and others less so? Like most aspects of our psychology, this can be traced back to our evolution. Our evolutionary prime directive has always been to survive and to ensure the survival of our DNA which we pass on to our offspring.
When finding a mate then, our aim is really to find someone who is capable of passing on our genes and giving them the best chance of survival. We look for someone who has good genetics themselves and who will be capable of providing for our children. That’s why men like women who have signs of fertility (large breasts, full lips, wide hips) and who appear healthy. And it’s why women like men who appear healthy but who also have physical strength and access to resources.
Why do we find symmetry attractive? Because it suggests that cell division is occurring without error. In other words, it suggests that they are less likely to develop cancers.
This is how our emotion works – it drives nearly everything we do and this is all based around what would have helped our evolutionary imperative thousands of years ago. And the same thing goes for other types of attractiveness.
Why do we find some people likeable engaging? Why do we feel drawn to certain people more than others? One reason is if we think they offer us physical safety by being part of our group. Another though is if we think they offer us some kind of social status.
For instance, if someone has access to more resources or appears to hold more sway within a group, then that makes us warm to them because we hope that in befriending them, we will raise our own status. This is all unconscious of course, but it is still an underlying motivation. And it might also be involved in your decision to buy that expensive new car you don’t really need.
And it’s one reason that we often feel put off by people who are socially awkward – because we worry that the association can hurt our own access to resources and mates.
2. What to Take From This.
So, consider this next time you speak with someone: what signals are you putting out?
If you seem very eager to please, then you might actually be giving off signs that you are lower in the ranking – otherwise you would have no reason to want to impress them so much. And if you seem confident and indifferent, then the assumption might just be that you have a reason for being so confident.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlvQhVbLL94

http://syndlab.tudothatsu.com/the-history-of-social-status/