'Anointed': How social status begets more status and influences our lives

Every week The Money Show interviews the author or reviewer of a new or trending business book.

This week Stephen Grootes talked to regular reviewer Ian Mann, MD of Gateways Business Consultants.

Mann reviewed Anointed: The Extraordinary Effects of Social Status in a Winner-Take-Most World.

It's written by Toby Stuart, a leading organisational theorist and Professor of Business Administration at the Haas School of Business, University of California (UC) Berkeley.

With Anointed, Stuart examines the importance of social status and how it influences nearly every part of our lives.

As he said in an interview, 'people often have a status that’s decoupled from their level of achievement - they’re not perfectly correlated'.

And this is how status begets more status.

"The upshot: Our society is less meritocratic than we would like to think. And, Stuart believes, it will become even less so as artificial intelligence advances."

As Ian Mann echoes out, status defines who you choose in various scenarios, who you value, and who you trust.

"Hierarchies have been around since forever... and it's terribly pervasive. Five-year old kids at school can tell you who are the smartest kids, who are the popular kids, and they know that almost instinctively. Adults can do this within milliseconds - walk into a room and we can quickly suss out who's who there, and then we respond accordingly."

"It seems like a winner-takes-all scenario, but often disproportionately so. It gives people a lot of power and credibility for all sorts of reasons that are not necessarily intrinsically valuable."

"Beyoncé may have thousands of times more followers than anybody else, but does that mean she's a thousand times better singer? Once you are anointed, it can make a huge difference to your outcomes."

"And being anointed, means you can do the same for somebody else. One example is Ella Fitzgerald who had this extraordinary voice but, as a black, overweight woman in the fifties, couldn't sing in the biggest clubs. She happened to be friendly with Marilyn Monroe who said to one of the most important clubs that she'd sit in the front row for the entire week when Fitzgerald sang, and with that the singer burst onto the scene."

"The author also refers to the Matthew effect where, like in the Bible, those who've got will get more and those who don't have will have a whole lot less. When somebody's anointed they can get away with so much... because it often translates into other things like money as well."

"I think the more we are aware of the power of these hierarchies, the more we can calibrate and work with them carefully... not presuming that because you've been anointed you matter more."

Ian Mann, MD - Gateways Business Consultants

Description on Amazon:

A leading organizational theorist takes us deep into the realm of humanity’s most powerful invisible force—social status—and how it shapes everything from who we trust and what we value to which ideas and innovations change the world and who gets credit for their success.

Why does an authentic Rembrandt fetch hundreds of millions while a nearly identical painting by his most talented disciple goes for a tiny fraction of that price? What makes a restaurant “hot,” a neighborhood “up-and-coming,” or a technology “the next big thing”? Why do people often choose the same seats in recurrent office meetings? Who is most likely to interrupt someone else mid-sentence? Why do big name lawyers earn so much? Why are health disparities so pronounced? And why, when someone gets a bit ahead in life, does the small advantage so often compound?

The answer to all these questions is social status—invisible hierarchies that influence every aspect of our lives, from our health to our personal relationships and careers to how we behave in social and work settings to the tastes and preferences we form. Without it, we’d be lost and paralyzed when faced with even the simplest decisions.

But it comes at a steep cost: status works as a powerful amplifier, turning small initial advantages into insurmountable leads. Inequality is baked into its core.

Through compelling examples from business, economics, literature, art, fashion, and beyond, Anointed demonstrates how status cascades through society, creating winners and losers in ways that often have little to do with merit. And how new technology offers a glimpse of a more equitable future.

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to Mann's full review