Why do people experience insecurity (i.e. why do feelings of insecurity exist in human beings)?
Humans are exquisitely sensitive to tribal status for fairly obvious reasons. This is why pretty much all human interactions have an element of status game about them.
Well, yes, but lots of human emotional responses are about mediating the perception and signalling of status. Insecurity is (more or less) second-guessing one’s self-perceived status, regardless of the reality of the situation. We might imagine this becoming more useful (and more frequent) in environments where there’s a lot of status competition.
So what happens in an environment where you have a cadre of ridiculously high-status superstimulatory celebrities, with media channels dedicated to demonstrating their high-status qualities and disseminating gossip about them?
Humans are exquisitely sensitive to tribal status for fairly obvious reasons. This is why pretty much all human interactions have an element of status game about them.
Well, yes, but lots of human emotional responses are about mediating the perception and signalling of status. Insecurity is (more or less) second-guessing one’s self-perceived status, regardless of the reality of the situation. We might imagine this becoming more useful (and more frequent) in environments where there’s a lot of status competition.
So what happens in an environment where you have a cadre of ridiculously high-status superstimulatory celebrities, with media channels dedicated to demonstrating their high-status qualities and disseminating gossip about them?
Bloody hell. I think I’ve turned into a feminist.