This is something that’s been discussed a few times on LW, but I don’t think it’s accurate. I don’t think there are two sets of rules, a “real” one and a “fake” one. Rather, I think that the rules for social interaction are very complicated and have a lot of exceptions, and any attempt to discuss it will inevitably be oversimplified. Temple Grandin’s book discusses this idea: all social rules have exceptions that can’t be spelled out in full.
The status test (actually a social skills test) isn’t to see if you fail by being stupid enough to follow the “fake” rules rather than the “real ones”. It’s to see if you’re savvy enough to understand all the nuances and exceptions to the rules.
This is something that’s been discussed a few times on LW, but I don’t think it’s accurate. I don’t think there are two sets of rules, a “real” one and a “fake” one. Rather, I think that the rules for social interaction are very complicated and have a lot of exceptions, and any attempt to discuss it will inevitably be oversimplified. Temple Grandin’s book discusses this idea: all social rules have exceptions that can’t be spelled out in full.
The status test (actually a social skills test) isn’t to see if you fail by being stupid enough to follow the “fake” rules rather than the “real ones”. It’s to see if you’re savvy enough to understand all the nuances and exceptions to the rules.