Social Fog of War is a counterintuitive concept: in order for status- and social capital- driven social systems to work optimally, they must be opaque. The illegibility and opacity of intra-group status was doing something really important – it created space where everyone could belong.

Sometimes it shows up as an affinity for social hierarchy—a deference to authority and the inclination to suck up to those in power.

While it may carry something of a negative connotation, status is a very natural (and important!) human phenomenon. In The Status Game, author Will Storr remarked, “Back in the Stone Age, increased status meant greater influence, access to a wider choice of mates and more security and resources for ourselves and our children. It still does today.”

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