Kindle
$12.99
Available instantly
Audible Logo Audiobook
$0.00
with membership trial
Hardcover
$19.63
Paperback
from $14.35
Select delivery location
See All Buying Options
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the authors

Will Storr
Follow
Will Storr
Follow
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

The Status Game: How Social Position Governs Everything Paperback

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 717 ratings
See all formats and editions
Great on Kindle
Great Experience. Great Value.
iphone with kindle app
Putting our best book forward
Each Great on Kindle book offers a great reading experience, at a better value than print to keep your wallet happy.

Explore your book, then jump right back to where you left off with Page Flip.

View high quality images that let you zoom in to take a closer look.

Enjoy features only possible in digital – start reading right away, carry your library with you, adjust the font, create shareable notes and highlights, and more.

Discover additional details about the events, people, and places in your book, with Wikipedia integration.
Get the free Kindle app: Link to the kindle app page Link to the kindle app page
Enjoy a great reading experience when you buy the Kindle edition of this book. Learn more about Great on Kindle, available in select categories.
View Kindle Edition
Previous page
  1. Language
    English
  2. Dimensions
    6.02 x 1.22 x 9.21 inches
  3. ISBN-10
    0008354642
  4. ISBN-13
    978-0008354640
  5. See all details
Next page
The Amazon Book Review
The Amazon Book Review
Book recommendations, author interviews, editors' picks, and more. Read it now.
Popular Highlights in this book
What are popular highlights?
Previous page
  1. Disconnection is a fearsome state for a social animal to find itself in. It’s a warning that its life is failing and its world has become hostile: where there’s no connection, there’s no protection.
    Highlighted by 627 Kindle readers
  2. So we’re driven to seek connection and rank: to be accepted into groups and win status within them. This is the game of human life.
    Highlighted by 552 Kindle readers
  3. This inbuilt need to achieve and maintain status gives us a thirst for rank and a fear of its loss that deforms our thinking and denies us the possibility of reliable happiness.
    Highlighted by 424 Kindle readers
Next page

Product details

  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0008354642
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0008354640
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.1 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.02 x 1.22 x 9.21 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 717 ratings

About the authors

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Previous page
  1. Will Storr

    Will Storr

    Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

    See more on the author's page
  2. Will Storr

    Will Storr

    Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

    See more on the author's page
Next page

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
717 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Steven sanderson
5.0 out of 5 stars a top book to read
Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2024
Verified Purchase
Guns germs and steel, 1984, and this book have given me insight into circumstances, pit falls of post-modern thought and human nature.

If you wish to try and answer why are people doing what they do?, This book helped me.
Helpful
 Report
Flagler Yellow
5.0 out of 5 stars The Missing Piece of the Puzzle
Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2023
Verified Purchase
For years I've tried figuring out the truths of human existence. I pondered a variety of religions and and psychological studies, inaccurately attributing society's ills to just ego.

However, one read of this book has completely changed my world view. Suddenly people finally make sense. Life is actually a two way street. Yes ego is what drives people to do things, but it's actually ego's reaction to status hierarchies that is the confounding aspect of life. The Status Game is an incredible read and I highly recommend it to anyone interested.

This is a melt in your mouth type book that you can't really speed read to get the most out of, so take your time and enjoy the never-ending stream of insight. It will substantially lighten your stress load if you're in a perennial state of existential dread.
7 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Paul E Shemansky
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellente
Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2022
Verified Purchase
This is book that makes the world a little bit clearer. It will open your eyes to status games being played all around you. You will look at the world different by the end of the book.
8 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Evgeny Bondarenko
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book full of insights.
Reviewed in the United States on March 6, 2024
Verified Purchase
Glad that found this book.
Helpful
 Report
TR
5.0 out of 5 stars Mind Blowing
Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2024
Verified Purchase
I feel like my head has exploded and am seeing everything in an entirely new light. Highly recommend as a way to understand yourself better and your fellow humans, and what makes us susceptible to such odd behaviors. This book explains perfectly why it's impossible, for example, to reason with someone who has a tightly held beliefs and why the more educated you are the more likely to have a blind spot on said belief. There are moments when Storr is not even conscious of his own biases based on his own status game, which was amusing but also reinforced just how strong and deceptive these forces can be.
Helpful
 Report
H. Martin
5.0 out of 5 stars a whole new lense to view and understand social life through
Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2023
Verified Purchase
Thought provoking, some times alarming. Always illuminating. This understanding of the games we are all playing will be immensely useful.
I hope many people read this, including my adult children.
2 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
William M. Downs
5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant Book!
Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2022
Verified Purchase
I have never read a book that answers so many questions about life. And it does more than point out the problems. The final chapter will help you live a better life. I just finished reading it, and I am overcome by joy. So many parts of my life I didn’t understand are now clear. I put this book up there with Will Durant’s ‘The Story of Philosophy,’ Viktor Frankl’s ‘Man’s Search For Meaning’ and Isaiah Berlin’s ‘The Roots of Romanticism’ as one of the best books I have read.
28 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
JQD
5.0 out of 5 stars an incredibly important and insightful book.
Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2022
Verified Purchase
A well written and organized look at how biology threads into psychology that weaves anthropology that makes history, this shines a powerful light on the tapestry of human life. This book shines a powerful life on one of the deepest and most powerful motivators that acts on us, so basic and enveloping that is as invisible as the air we breath. We instinctively expand to take it in, and we feel the dire threat at the first instance it is denied to us.
12 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
Jorge
5.0 out of 5 stars Una joya de libro!
Reviewed in Mexico on May 11, 2023
Verified Purchase
Este es un gran libro. Lo recomiendo ampliamente para todas aquellas personas que desean comprender mejor la naturaleza del hombre y de nuestro comportamiento e intuiciones.
Report
Kyle McDonald
5.0 out of 5 stars Status Owns You
Reviewed in Canada on April 8, 2023
Verified Purchase
Along with Thinking, Fast and Slow, this should probably be on every highschool curriculum in the world. Storr fearlessly plunges into the salacious and horrifying morass of the dark side of homo sapiens - just about everything we do is governed by the forces of social status.

This has knockdown effects across so many facets of life, including the seemingly insane polarization we see across the Western world today, as Storr himself says: "just like ISIS, activsts use the dread machine of social media to gain a level of status..." (Pg 179).

Rife with both studies and real life examples, Storr does an excellent job of bringing the hidden puppeteer of status seeking to the fore, and offers some helpful advice for countering it and even leveraging it to our own benefit.

This book will appease both expert and layman alike, and, while it will certainly make you huff and puff from time to time, it's a reality I believe we need to face down if we're to improve ourselves.
One person found this helpful
 Report
Jandrey Souza
5.0 out of 5 stars Muito boa a leitura!
Reviewed in Brazil on May 26, 2022
Verified Purchase
Um ponto de vista bem real do entendimento das relações sociais e do sentido da vida. Vale muito a pena a leitura!
Report
Pauline
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read! Absolutely remarkable, very well researched position!
Reviewed in Germany on February 27, 2024
Verified Purchase
A must read for anyone interested in comprehending human nature. Combined expertise and evidence from evolutionary studies, evolutionary psychology, cognitive neurosciences, comparative studies like primatology and mating strategy.

Answers questions in regard to why humans strive for status, dominance, hierarchy, power and control what happened along with evolution of homo sapiens and our ancestors in the past that we have inherent urge for hierarchy like other primates.

Complimentary to prof. David Buss publications as well as Robert Greene, Dunbar, Dawkins, Yuval Noah Harari, R. Wright etc..

Very good read! Would recommend to anyone whether highschool or university student, business owner or someone looking for answers on human nature why majority of our unconsiouss reactive as well as default reactions fullfill either need for survival or reproduction.
Report
Santosh Redij
3.0 out of 5 stars Great historical facts connected with Status
Reviewed in India on February 21, 2024
Verified Purchase
Lots of insights provided to prove how status is all encompassing in the history and also in the present world. Projecting that it will continue in the future but we can stay away from it by knowing that life is a game not to win but to play.
Report