The Status Game

What drives our political and moral beliefs? What maks us like some things and dislike others? What shapes how we behave, and misbehave, in groups? What makes you, you?

From the era of the hunter-gatherer to the modern day, the need for status has always been wired into us. A wealth of research shows that how much of it we possess dramatically affects not only our happiness and wellbeing but also our physical health. It's an unconscious obsession that drives the best and worst of us: our innovation, arts and civilisation as well as our murders, wars and genocides. But why is status such an all-consuming prize? What happens if it's taken away from us? And how ca our unquenchable thirst for it explain cults, moral panics, conspiracy theories, the rise of social media and the 'culture wars' of today?