I agree that status facts aren’t facts about self-esteem. But (1) only in a few communities is status about physical conflict. Obviously, this isn’t the relevant criterion for women or middle class and higher adults. (2) Status isn’t about self-esteem but the two affect each other in important ways. If people around you can detect low self-esteem it very often lowers your status. Moreover, having low status can lower your self-esteem. High status can raise self-esteem and high self-esteem can signal high status. This circular relationship means that status and self-esteem are (a) nearly coextensive so it isn’t surprising that we might confuse the two and (b) causally connected in a way that makes it worth our time to pay attention to self-esteem in exactly the way Morendil suggests.
I agree that status facts aren’t facts about self-esteem. But (1) only in a few communities is status about physical conflict. Obviously, this isn’t the relevant criterion for women or middle class and higher adults. (2) Status isn’t about self-esteem but the two affect each other in important ways. If people around you can detect low self-esteem it very often lowers your status. Moreover, having low status can lower your self-esteem. High status can raise self-esteem and high self-esteem can signal high status. This circular relationship means that status and self-esteem are (a) nearly coextensive so it isn’t surprising that we might confuse the two and (b) causally connected in a way that makes it worth our time to pay attention to self-esteem in exactly the way Morendil suggests.