People of High Status

[Malachii]

What intrinsic psychological characteristics do people of high status have? By high status, I mean people with high status socially, alpha males, people of charisma, charm, and high self essteem, that sort of thing. What I've come up with so far is that people of high status have:

1.) Well established boundries as to what behavior they will and will not tolerate - this is important.
2.) Do not seek approval from others.
3.) High self esteem
4.) A strong code of ethics - beliefs which they adhere to.
5.) Emotional control. A person of high character doesn't throw hissy fits or get upset when they don't get their way.
6.) Have a lot of power in their personal relationships - more about this can be found in Robert Greene's 48 Laws of Power, an excellent book which I highly reccomend.

Anything else? What have I overlooked?

[Dan Mezick]

You're assuming a strong and positive sense of self-worth is required to obtain and hold power. These two items are not necessarily correlated. If you are a serious student, study each of these topics separately.

Most powerful statesmen fit your description of "high status" and they are likely at least sociopaths ... and many may actually be 100% psychopaths. It's easy to see why. Just look at the job description.

Furthermore, you may wish to investigate the relationship between the impression of these characteristics and the actual existence of them.

[vexvelour]

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Furthermore, you may wish to investigate the relationship between the impression of these characteristics and the actual existence of them.

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Good point.

[Malachii]

What i mean by a person of "high status" isn't a person of high power in an economic or political sense but rather a person of high status through their intrinsic psychological characteristics. I guess a better word might be "a person of charisma."

[Dan Mezick]

Charisma is "the ability to develop or inspire in others an ideological commitment to a particular point of view."

Powerful people are made, but charismatic people are born. You have it or you don't. People that hate Bill Clinton meet him and come away liking him alot and wonder (mumbling, aloud) about what just what happened. THAT's charisma.

All charimatic types have the ability to wield enormous influence, but not all people with influence are charismatic.

LAG-style play and personal charisma seem highly correlated.

As a side note, I consider Robert Greene's book to be one of the greatest poker books of all time.