Failures of status result in dominance behaviors.

This is always negative. Humans too easily fall into aggressive and divisive behaviors which readily manifest in absurd or violent ways. This can also cause the ego-defensive reaction of shame, which goes beyond dominance into many types of internal and external damaging behaviors. Moral grandstanding is an unfaithful pursuit of status that includes dominance.rM1


  1. Brett & Kate McKay, “Podcast #756: How the Desire for Status Explains (Pretty Much) Everything,” The Art of Manliness (blog), November 15, 2021, https://www.artofmanliness.com/character/behavior/podcast-756-how-the-desire-for-status-explains-pretty-much-everything/. (See notes.)