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The Psychology of Social Status:
My new lecture series “The Psychology of Social Status” is now available exclusively at Peterson Academy.
I delivered six lectures in front of a live studio audience, exploring the psychology of social status, examining its evolutionary roots, developmental origins, and the fundamental role it plays in shaping human behavior. We examine individual differences in status-seeking, the evolutionary reasons behind status pursuit, and the complex relationships between status, envy, emotions, and intrasexual competition for romantic partners. We also investigate the dynamics of social status in relation to stories, plot lines, and arenas of competition, and conclude by discussing the concept of luxury beliefs and their impact on society.
Enroll here for immediate access.
Here’s the trailer:
From the archives:
The Optimal Margin of Illusion: The psychology of self-appraisal
Links and recommendations:
Broken Windows Policing Is Still the Best Way to Fight Crime by John McMillian
How 4chan became the home of the elite reader by Ella Dorn
The Origins of Wokeness by Paul Graham
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Three interesting findings:
1. While men are nearly 18 percent faster than women in 5K races, they are only 11 percent faster in marathons, 3.7 percent faster at 50 miles, roughly even as they approach 100 miles, and then women routinely outpace men at races 195 miles and up. (source: Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution by Cat Bohannon).
2. In a longitudinal study on happiness, the most reliable indicator of being happy and healthy at age 80 was relationship satisfaction, especially within marriages, which proved to be the strongest predictor of a fulfilling and healthy life. (source).
3. Behaviors associated with high trait Openness on the Big Five dimensions (source):
•Eating something spicy for breakfast
•Lounging around the house with no clothes on
•Spending an hour at a time daydreaming
•Buying a book
•Swearing
•Reading poetry
Not necessarily in that order. But that would be a pretty good day.
I agree. I prefer "rich people food". Michelin, but I also prefer the taste of farm to table. Vegetables really do taste better in season.
Interesting as usual. Re interesting finding #1 (I have not read the source or the source's sources; thanks for the link):
beware of inferring too much from the factoid -
1) Both the sampling function and the underlying distribution may well be quite different (i.e. sampling function between men and women who do run races of those respective lengths enough to get included into datasets, and the distribution of those who have the physical, mental, social etc. capacity to choose to train for and run such races, again especially at the greater distances), especially *far* out on the tails (e.g. races longer than 100 miles).
2) It's a good starting assumption on almost any measure (weakly held of course and rebuttable with data for any particular measure) that men will be higher variability than women, and with more positive skewness (tail on the right/high side of the peak) for men than for women.