@KevinSimler Just read your great essay "Social Status: Down the Rabbit Hole", and started thinking about prestige & humility. I would naively assume a high-prestige person to advertise loudly, to make their kindness known, but we don't do this, and we actually hate it.
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The only explanation I can come up with for why humility is adaptive is something to do with knowing your place in the pecking order, because there may be bad consequences to advertising a high rank and being wrong, but I couldn't find evidence for this. Curious what you think
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Replying to @utilinaut
it’s a really great question! i think you’re absolutely right that the pure prestige game leads to a strategy where people try as hard as possible to advertise their good qualities. the main countervailing force that i see is a strong norm against being/appearing dominant.
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Replying to @KevinSimler
christopher boehm writes a lot about how societies band together to prevent strongmen/bullies from tyrannizing the group. he calls this a “reverse dominance hierarchy.” basically everyone gangs up on the tyrant and exiles or murders him.
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Replying to @KevinSimler
in light of that, a very prestigious person needs to avoid being seen as having too much status/power (and lording it over people), or he’ll raise everyone’s hackles and risk inciting their “let’s knock him down a peg” reaction. so that’s where i think humility comes from
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and now that i think about it, your explanation seems like a more general application of that principle!
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