Sex and Status - Rob Henderson's Newsletter

We’ve covered a lot of ground discussing what status is and individual differences in the desire to seek and attain it.1 But why do we care so much about status—why this invisible resource is so important to us? People who learn about evolutionary psychology sometimes get a little too hung up on sex. The core reason why humans care about status is because it was, for our ancestors, directly tied to evolutionary fitness. Status increased our ancestors’ likelihood of obtaining access to critical resources, securing social allies and friends, attracting romantic partners, and ultimately, the real currency of evolution: Offspring. People focus too much on the process (sex) rather than the outcome (offspring). The goal of evolution isn’t to get you to hook up with as many people as possible, or to get you to have sex with the hottest or highest-status person. To simplify, the goal is to get you to have children that are likely to survive and carry your genes forward. To be clear, evolution

We’ve covered a lot of ground discussing what status is and individual differences in the desire to seek and attain it.1 But why do we care so much about status—why this invisible resource is so important to us? People who learn about evolutionary psychology sometimes get a little too hung up on sex. The core reason why humans care about status is because it was, for our ancestors, directly tied to evolutionary fitness. Status increased our ancestors’ likelihood of obtaining access to critical resources, securing social allies and friends, attracting romantic partners, and ultimately, the real