The Three Status Games
Diagnose whether status comes from force, competence, or virtue
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~days to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 97%
Storr groups status behaviour into three broad games. Dominance uses aggression, bullying, or the threat of force to compel attention. Success rewards competence and useful contribution, such as being a skilled hunter, storyteller, technologist, or problem-solver. Virtue rewards knowledge and enforcement of a group's rules, rituals, and moral stories. The categories are diagnostic rather than pure types: a boxing match, for example, mixes physical dominance with rules, making it a dominance-virtue game. Storr is most wary of virtue-dominance combinations, where moral standing licenses coercion against people who dissent. The framework helps an observer ask what behaviour the group rewards, how compliance is obtained, and whether moral language is supporting cooperation or becoming a route to punishment. Its purpose is classification and redesign, not declaring all status pursuit bad.
Origin
Extracted from The Diary of a CEO
Core principles
- 01Dominance gains attention through aggression or its threat
- 02Success gains value through useful competence
- 03Virtue gains value through rules, rituals, and moral enforcement
- 04Real groups usually blend more than one game
- 05Virtue combined with dominance can become coercive
How to run it
- 1
Locate the status reward
Observe what makes people in the group receive attention, deference, promotion, or praise. Focus on behaviour rather than formal titles alone.
Pro tip Examine who can interrupt, set rules, and define success.
- 2
Test for dominance
Look for aggression, bullying, threat, or forced attention. Mark dominance when another person must attend or comply because refusal carries a cost.
Pro tip Include implied threats, not only overt violence.
- 3
Test for success
Look for status awarded through competence, contribution, craft, or useful results. Identify which abilities the group values most.
Pro tip Separate genuine contribution from mere visibility.
- 4
Test for virtue
Look for status earned by following, teaching, or enforcing shared rules and rituals. Note whether enforcement supports cooperation or targets dissenters.
Pro tip Ask who gets to define the group's moral rules.
Watch out Virtue language does not guarantee virtuous consequences.
- 5
Name the blend
Classify the situation by its strongest combination rather than forcing it into a pure category. Use the diagnosis to decide which incentives or safeguards need attention.
Pro tip Reassess the blend across different situations in the same group.
Watch out Do not treat the label as a complete moral verdict.
In the wild
Storr describes boxing as clearly involving dominance while also requiring virtue in the form of accepted rules. A competitor cannot ignore every boundary, so the contest is better diagnosed as a dominance-virtue blend than as a pure dominance game.
→ The example demonstrates why real status games should be classified as blends.
Storr interprets social-media mobs that punish people for holding the wrong beliefs as virtue-dominance games: participants gain moral status through rule enforcement and use dominance to force conformity.
→ The diagnostic surfaces coercion operating beneath claims of moral enforcement.
Common mistakes
Assuming every game is pure
Most real situations combine dominance, success, and virtue in different proportions.
Equating virtue with kindness
In this model, virtue includes knowing and enforcing group rules, which can involve punishment.
Is it for you?
Best for
Leaders, community builders, and observers diagnosing culture, conflict, and informal power.
Not ideal for
Reducing a complex person or organisation to one permanent label without examining the specific situation.
From the transcript
“there are kind of three general types of status games that we can play”
“There's also virtue. You know, we can play virtue games.”
“the games that are most destructive are what I call virtue dominance games”
From the episode
The More Successful You Are The Longer You’ll Live: Will Storr