A surefire way to provoke anger in people is to ‘cheat’ in status games. Claiming status that you do not really ‘deserve’ tends to trigger righteous fury. This is the main force that restricts the degree to which people claim status beyond their CPP in social interactions. In the modern world it is possible for people to get away with cheating at status games for much longer than it was for most of human history and the consequences of being found out are less fatal so it is adaptive to push further than it was in the past.
A surefire way to provoke anger in people is to ‘cheat’ in status games. Claiming status that you do not really ‘deserve’ tends to trigger righteous fury. This is the main force that restricts the degree to which people claim status beyond their CPP in social interactions. In the modern world it is possible for people to get away with cheating at status games for much longer than it was for most of human history and the consequences of being found out are less fatal so it is adaptive to push further than it was in the past.
Actually, cheating in any social games angers people. Note that telling bad jokes provokes violence.
Did anyone else actually find the joke in the article really funny?
P.S. Don’t hurt me.
I found the joke funny the first time I heard it. When it was “What did the banana say to the elephant”!
Interesting. I’d argue that to a first approximation all social games are status games however.
Yes, I’m pretty sure that’s the case made by that researcher regarding the jokes, anyway.