Since higher social status seems to increase life expectancy I have wondered if there is a way of “tricking yourself” into thinking your status is higher than most people would believe. Perhaps, for example, if you have little hope of having a prestigious career you could devote lots of time to becoming a respected leader in World of Warcraft. Or might it even be enough to become the ruler of a virtual kingdom in which you are the only non-computer player?
On the other hand, you’d probably waste far more time pressing the same button over and over again in World of Warcraft, then you could hope to gain in increased lifespan even if that trick worked. The question is whether there’s an efficient way of tricking your brain into believing you have high status.
Much of the social status boost to life expectancy might not be due to wealth.
The “‘Hierarchy Effect,’ …states that being lower in the social hierarchy independently impacts health through increases in the release of stress hormones. This has been shown fairly well in animal studies where researchers monitor the levels of stress hormones in primates and have found that being nearer the top reduces the overall level of stress hormones”′
I wonder how one dissociates the cause and effect in animal studies. Healthier animals are more likely apriori to advance up the social hierarchy.
Nonetheless, it does make sense that social mammals could employ different strategies based on social rank. If you are at the top, you have more access to food and mates and a higher benefit to longevity. If you are at the bottom and have zero access to mates, longevity doesn’t help your genes much, and your genes have an incentive to employ riskier strategies that could sacrifice longevity.
With those studies, I wonder how much is a sort of abstract being lower in the hierarchy, or having to give out submission signals, and how much is objectively worse conditions—fro example, greater risk of physical assault or (for humans) less access to sunlight.
I’ve seen one claim which I haven’t been able to verify that eccentrics are healthier than other people.
If true, is it just that it takes pretty good financial security to pull off being eccentric? Doing what you please means you optimize your environment for yourself? It’s not that high status is good for you, it’s that low status is bad for you?
A lot of it is produce availability, walkability, gym membership, and avoiding the stresses of poverty. Controlling for all that and getting a pure effect of hierarchy on longevity is incredibly hard. I haven’t read Alain de Botton on income inequality, but as I understand his evidence has been somewhat discredited.
Since higher social status seems to increase life expectancy I have wondered if there is a way of “tricking yourself” into thinking your status is higher than most people would believe. Perhaps, for example, if you have little hope of having a prestigious career you could devote lots of time to becoming a respected leader in World of Warcraft. Or might it even be enough to become the ruler of a virtual kingdom in which you are the only non-computer player?
On the other hand, you’d probably waste far more time pressing the same button over and over again in World of Warcraft, then you could hope to gain in increased lifespan even if that trick worked. The question is whether there’s an efficient way of tricking your brain into believing you have high status.
Why would this be? Higher social status seem to me to be correlated with greater wealth and the ability to buy expensive health food.
Much of the social status boost to life expectancy might not be due to wealth.
The “‘Hierarchy Effect,’ …states that being lower in the social hierarchy independently impacts health through increases in the release of stress hormones. This has been shown fairly well in animal studies where researchers monitor the levels of stress hormones in primates and have found that being nearer the top reduces the overall level of stress hormones”′
http://longevity.about.com/od/researchandmedicine/a/hierarchy.htm
I wonder how one dissociates the cause and effect in animal studies. Healthier animals are more likely apriori to advance up the social hierarchy.
Nonetheless, it does make sense that social mammals could employ different strategies based on social rank. If you are at the top, you have more access to food and mates and a higher benefit to longevity. If you are at the bottom and have zero access to mates, longevity doesn’t help your genes much, and your genes have an incentive to employ riskier strategies that could sacrifice longevity.
With those studies, I wonder how much is a sort of abstract being lower in the hierarchy, or having to give out submission signals, and how much is objectively worse conditions—fro example, greater risk of physical assault or (for humans) less access to sunlight.
I’ve seen one claim which I haven’t been able to verify that eccentrics are healthier than other people.
If true, is it just that it takes pretty good financial security to pull off being eccentric? Doing what you please means you optimize your environment for yourself? It’s not that high status is good for you, it’s that low status is bad for you?
By what objective criteria does one distinguish an ‘eccentric’ from a regular person?
A lot of it is produce availability, walkability, gym membership, and avoiding the stresses of poverty. Controlling for all that and getting a pure effect of hierarchy on longevity is incredibly hard. I haven’t read Alain de Botton on income inequality, but as I understand his evidence has been somewhat discredited.