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Evidently, there is a trend in Chinese business for hiring white foreigners to pose as important dignitaries. The presence of a visiting CEO from Europe or America increases the prestige of the hosting company. This prestige has led to companies staging events and hiring expats to pose as foreign VIPs. According to Zhang Haihua, author [...]

“Everybody lies,” is the repetitive assertion of the fictional Dr. House. The truth is that I am actually beginning to believe this fictional character’s maxim. The study of influence is in essence the study of bias and its relation between individual, individuals, groups, and culture. If we have an aesthetic preference, say kakis over baggies [...]

Bling bling is a style associated with hip-hop sub-culture. A grandiose display of jewelry, gold, and diamonds denotes its exuberance with no uncertainty. Wearing several large gold chains at once is common. Large gold dollar sign pendants are also a stereotype of the style. I believe the real hallmark of bling bling is that it [...]

I wanted to explore a comment on an earlier post, written by my friend Storme Jaynes. Storme posits that status is about money and the more you have the more status you have. First, I want to say that there appears to be a good deal of individual and cultural relativity in what constitutes status. [...]

Scotland is purported to be the last and only country where an individual can purchase a title of nobility that is formally recognized by the government. It appears that there are two classes of titles in Scotland’s nobility—peerage titles and feudal titles. Only feudal titles are purchasable.  These titles essentially existed as a bundle of [...]

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuehXl4lpRQ&feature=related A few years ago, Erik Wachmeister had the idea to start a social network website for a select group of global acquaintances. It is worth mentioning that Erik is the son of a Swedish ambassador and aristocrat, Count Wilhelm Wachmeister. Erik’s creation was aSmallWorld.net, branded as a social network for those who already know [...]

I said to myself, “eureka,” as it occurred to me that the classifieds section might just be the ultimate source of “status presentations.” A casual glance did not disappoint me… A self-described wealthy older man is looking for a woman to attend domestic and international events with. The right woman must be petite, classy, and [...]

What does that online profile say about you? Many people offer up their interests, their hobbies, favorite movies, authors, and quotes and this establishes a person’s aesthetic and life-style preferences. Some interests might be indicators of status but that does not necessarily make them a conscious conveyance of status. Looking through my Facebook friends, I [...]

Barnet Newman paintings Image Licensed under Creative Commons with attribution rights by flickr user Joethelion There are those that wonder how a simple line painted on canvas came to be considered one of the modern world’s greatest artistic achievements. There is something pleasing about the shear simplicity of it. Nevertheless, this gentle quality is overshadowed [...]

Second Life is a virtual community where participants interact with their environment and others through avatars. I developed an awareness of Second Life from an ethnographic article in the most recent addition of Symbolic Interaction. That article focused on sexual language and behavior in Second Life. Interestingly, you can meet somebody in Second Life and [...]

With 20 posts, so far, only one post has been categorized as a formal status symbol. “Formal” seemed to be a natural classification but from an interpretive point of view it became apparent that most formal symbols are blatant and need no interpretation as status symbols. Nevertheless, there are many questions surrounding this classification and [...]

Yahoo ran this interesting article yesterday about a young man who got into Harvard with false credentials, and then, when discovered, managed to get accepted into Princeton. The antagonist had claimed, falsely, that he attended the prestigious Phillips Academy at Andover and attended MIT. There is no doubt that Adam Wheeler was status fixated, but [...]

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