Status-seeking is not a modern flaw. It is an ancient instinct woven into our evolutionary story that, like the other instincts we have covered, has played a valuable role in getting us to where we are.
Among our primate relatives, rank shapes access to food, mating opportunities, and protection. Higher status often means more surviving offspring. Yet even in chimpanzee societies famed for their aggression, dominance depends on alliances and social intelligence as much as strength. This is evident also in the other human ancestory, the highly egalitarian and prosocial bonobo, where the status of mothers plays an important role in their sons’ success.
As early hominids became more cooperative, prestige likely attached to traits that benefited the group. Hunting skill, toolmaking, storytelling, conflict resolution, and generosity enhanced survival. In some Australian indigenous societies, knowledge was the currency of status and an individual’s place in society was largely defined by their knowledge. Anthropologists have made a number of interpretations of early behaviour by observing primitive societies that continued to exist into modernity. They noted that in groups such as the Hadza, skilled hunters gain respect and mating opportunities, yet are expected to share widely. Prestige comes from contribution rather than accumulation.
In that setting, status played a role in self-preservation, at both individual and group levels. It rewarded altruism, because generosity built reputation. Acquisitiveness was constrained with teasing, ridicule and “theft”. Tribalism, intensified the stakes, since belonging meant survival. Reverence elevated elders and spiritual figures. Even playfulness could enhance standing through humour and creativity as well as keep egos in check.
Status-seeking functioned as a motivational tool that strengthened competence and cohesion.
The hardening of status
As societies became larger with the rise of civilisation, status shifted from a fluid prestige to rigid hierarchy. Caste systems in South Asia embedded rank in birth and occupation. Aristocracies in Europe and imperial lineages in East Asia tied status to bloodlines and to land. What had once been earned through visible contribution often became inherited without question, though not without conflict.
These systems provided order and continuity, but they also entrenched inequality. Getting ahead in life frequently depended on proximity to power rather than on behaviours that strengthened and benefited society. Flattery and compliance could be rewarded alongside, or instead of, competence.
Enclosure of the commons and colonialism reshaped status again. In parts of Europe, common lands were privatised, pushing many into wage labour serving the elite. Colonial systems throughout the world restructured local economies and extracted resources, often forcing participation in labour markets that served imperial interests. Status was increasingly associated with wealth and connections through all levels of society.
Industrialisation then rapidly increased our capacity to transform resources. Marketing learned quickly to play on our ancient status instincts to generate demand. Consumption became symbolic. Clothing, houses, appliances, personal transport and holidays previously only accessible to the elite came to signal success throughout the working class. With each escalation among commoners the benchmark signifying elite status continued to rise. The ability to make comparisons expanded through growing availability of media from village boundaries to national and then global stages.
The instinct that once helped coordinate small groups was now operating inside vast economic systems.
When Status Goes Wrong
In modern society, status-seeking often detaches from contribution and attaches instead to display. What earns admiration, follows and karma is frequently resource intensity rather than usefulness. Bigger houses, newer cars, curated lifestyles, exotic travel, and relentless busyness have become the markers of worth, of success and of status.
This has come with consequences. At the individual level, the constant comparison fuels anxiety, debt, overwork, and dissatisfaction. We measure ourselves against edited highlights and internalise the gap as personal failure. The ancient fear of exclusion is activated, even though our survival does not depend on matching our neighbours’ renovations or holidays.
At a social level, the status treadmill continues to raise the bar for everyone. What was once an extravagance becomes an expected norm. Weddings and even children’s birthdays become ever more polished. Homes continue to grow. Hobbies and hiking are commodified. Families take on financial strain to maintain their position. Tribalism narrows into unintended and often unconscious competition rather than cohesion. We are rarely aware we are “one-upping” others, in our desperation just to be good enough.
At a planetary level, the consequences of this trend are substantial ecological overshoot, with the Australian lifestyle for instance, requiring five earths if adopted globally. When status is tied to material throughput, the biosphere absorbs the cost. Forests are cleared, oceans depleted, rivers polluted and cultures forgotten, not because individuals are malicious, but because millions are responding to deeply wired instincts within a culture that rewards display.
It is important to acknowledge that most of us are not consciously choosing to undermine our wellbeing or the planet. We are shaped by models that surround us. Consumer culture is immersive and persuasive. Resisting it requires awareness, support, and often a counter-tribe that validates different measures of success.
Status in My Own Life
Status-seeking has taken different forms in my own story. At school I was the “fact man.” Knowledge was my currency. At college I was “Jon.com.” I didn’t choose either of these titles, but once I recognised the status they gave me, I played the game. At university and in my early career I tended to be a bit of a clown, quick to answer and show what I knowed. I also made a point of establishing my place as an ecological martyr. I didn’t get caught at that time in displays of material wealth for status. But that did come later.
We started hosting cocktail parties, added fancy wallpaper and installed air conditioning to show that we had made it. And took a European anniversary trip in 2019, even while feeling conflicted over the environmental impact. We went to great lengths with plans to raise our house, ostensibly to give Adam and Dani each their own space and improve the thermal comfort. None of these things seem extreme in modern context. In fact they were culturally normal.
But they were a result of comparison. The culture we live in set the template, and we followed it. It was only thanks to a confluence of mental and physical health challenges, a natural disaster, and the loss of friendships that interrupted that trajectory. That crisis helped me to clarify what truly mattered. It was self-preservation reasserting itself at a deeper level. I knew I needed to return to core values of altruism and equality and how they manifest in sustainable living. I saw that we were chasing approval, chasing status, for actions that conflicted with those core values.
Redirecting the Instinct
Status-seeking is not about to disappear. It is woven so strongly through our evolutionary history and with other instincts. The question is what we attach elevated status to.
Today, Emelie and I are consciously seeking status as advocates of a one-planet life and effective poverty alleviation. Sharing our giving and developing the Living More with Less platform are attempts to align prestige with generosity and restraint rather than accumulation and exhaustion. We acknowledge that we cannot be effective in sharing our message without establishing some degree of status and associated credibility.
There is still risk. Even ethical living and altruism can become performative. Status-seeking can infiltrate any value system and derail the original intentions. One countermeasure for this is community. Breaking from the dominant status models requires supportive tribes that together celebrate different measures of success. The recent interactive presentation I made concluded with the audience sharing their stories of doing good in the world. This was opportunity for attaching status to pro-social behaviours.
Status was once granted through competence, courage, knowledge, generosity, and cohesion in small bands struggling to survive. In a global consumer culture, it can drive anxiety, inequality, and ecological strain. The instinct itself is powerful and ancient. What we choose to honour, and what we choose to display, will shape both our communities and the world we leave behind.