Status drops fastest when people see a lack of self-control, honesty or awareness in you, and the video lists 15 specific behaviors, from bad hygiene to going against the crowd and being wrong. The video frames these as the adult version of giving someone the ick. Some of the 15 are strategic and others are just about being a basic human being.
Read them as a mirror, not a rulebook: the creators argue that status is what grants you access to certain rooms, so the behaviors below tend to close doors without anyone saying a word.
Watch the full video here, or skip to the breakdown below.
The 15 status killers at a glance
- Bad hygiene (0:22)
- People realizing you’re talking nonsense (1:13)
- Digging in with personal questions (1:46)
- You look physically tired or ill (2:19)
- Being bad with money (2:47)
- Letting others speak down on you without standing up for yourself (3:43)
- Not being able to read a room (4:19)
- Lack of emotional control (4:54)
- Excessive behaviors (5:27)
- People who are lost and lack purpose (6:04)
- Cruelty (7:19)
- A disregard for the rules of the house (7:43)
- Making one thing your entire personality (8:17)
- Lacking basic skills (8:44)
- Going against the consensus and being wrong (9:20)
- Bonus: how comfortable you are with unnecessary discomfort
1. Bad hygiene
Do not stink, do not stand too close and do not leave your breath in other people’s faces. Shower, brush your teeth, keep your hair clean, wear clean clothes (yesterday’s T-shirt no longer counts) and fix your teeth, cavities and root canal included. Do not throw garbage on the floor or street.
The video traces the reaction back to the days when people with poor hygiene were often sick, so humans learned to stay away. Today it signals that you do not take yourself or the situation seriously and could not manage the bare minimum of washing.
2. People realizing you’re talking nonsense
Once someone realizes you are full of it, nothing you say will be trusted. Society gives the benefit of the doubt at first, but once people feel you have been faking it, you are done.
In their eyes you wasted their time on a subject you know nothing about and actively tried to deceive them by posing as something you are not. It ties back to the story of the emperor’s new clothes.
3. Digging in with personal questions
Some things are not meant for the public, and to most people you count as the public. When you are not close enough that someone would volunteer the information, the video says not to ask, unless you do it for personal gain, which is why most people become reluctant.
You have met people who push their noses deep into your business, and it leaves you wondering what is wrong with them. Cross that line and people look down on you.
4. You look physically tired or ill
It sounds backwards, because tired people seem hard working. Alux argues the reverse: the more tired you are, the more you had to work, which means you do not yet own your freedom. In high society, it says, telling someone they look tired is an insult.
As for looking ill, it is the stay-away-from-sick-people reaction again.
5. Being bad with money
Being bad with money is a car crash in the making. The team reads it as a sign of poor self-control and a poor sense of priorities over time. It also puts the circle’s resources at risk, since people associate with those who can add to the group’s wellbeing.
The good news is that getting good with money is a matter of exposure. The creators mention an app that helps average people get there by explaining how money and the world work in 10-minute daily sessions, and say it is their favorite app because they built it.
6. Letting others speak down on you without standing up for yourself
The world treats you the way you treat yourself. If you let people walk over you, you might get sympathy but not respect, and respect is a key part of where you land in the social hierarchy. In the video’s equation, more respect means higher status.
Another video on the channel covers of theirs about small things that immediately raise status.
7. Not being able to read a room
Saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, trying to be funny when you should not and failing, missing how others feel: all of it builds a picture of who you are in other people’s heads. If you want to be invited back, learn to read the room.
The video’s sharper point is that status is what grants access to rooms. When you feel others are gatekeeping you from your dream life, you might be the reason they don’t let you in.
8. Lack of emotional control
Someone who cries all the time, can’t pull themselves together when needed, loses themselves to anger or is unpredictably violent becomes a red flag nobody wants to be near. If they change the mood of the room for the worse through lack of control, they are not welcome in it.
Life is complicated enough without worrying about who you let inside the castle walls.
9. Excessive behaviors
Excessive drinking, shoving too much food into your mouth, being severely overreligious or severely anti-religious, and being too woke or too conservative all count. The narrator says anything at the extremes is bad because excess comes from who you are, even if early signs look positive.
The first piece of chocolate tastes good and so does the second, but keep going and it makes you sick. It comes back to self-control and finding the value in everything you touch.
10. People who are lost and lack purpose
Alux describes people who aren’t going anywhere and have nothing interesting about them. Everyone is a hero in their own story, it says, and these people are the closest thing to non-player characters.
Why do we look down on them? Because we want to know others are motivated to perform and will give their best because it gets them closer to something they desire. Lacking purpose is like an unlit candle: it is there, but it does not help anyone.
11. Cruelty
Any cruelty is lower-status behavior, whether toward animals or toward people you consider below you or less lucky. Cruelty causes unnecessary suffering, and only low-status people can bring themselves to make someone or something suffer for no reason.
12. A disregard for the rules of the house
The house sets the rules. When you walk in, you choose to follow them. You are a guest and should behave like one. The host should be accommodating, but the guest should never run the show.
Remember what position you hold in the room. Any break of this unspoken rule gets you labeled low class, and it ties this to the way modern society looks down on immigrants who fail to assimilate.
13. Making one thing your entire personality
A one-trick pony gives people no reason to stay once the trick is done. Making one thing your whole identity is another form of extremism. There is nothing left to discover, people know your stance on any issue in advance and you become annoying about it. The video’s example is newly minted vegans.
14. Lacking basic skills
Even if you were born with a silver spoon, not being able to take care of yourself and your surroundings shows you have failed to become a complete adult. Cooking, changing a light bulb, washing and ironing your clothes and shopping for yourself are essentials.
The team asks pointed questions. How are you 28 and don’t know how to pay your taxes? How are you 33 and need your mother or wife to book a doctor’s appointment? How are you 41 and don’t own an electric screwdriver? Its answer: low status.
15. Going against the consensus and being wrong
Going against the crowd and being right gets you labeled a visionary. Going against it when the crowd is right gets you labeled stupid, and that is the cost.
High status comes from being right, and the more right you are, the more people follow your lead because of your track record. Low status comes from being mostly wrong, especially where it matters.
Bonus: how comfortable you are with unnecessary discomfort
The video’s bonus is that the biggest sign of low IQ is being comfortable with annoying background noise. Its list: smoke alarm beeps, a dripping tap, loudspeaker phone calls, screaming children, doors banging in the wind, barking dogs, a Bluetooth speaker outside and loud conversations.
It cites Schopenhauer on the subject and offers a running theory that people tolerate noise because there is no inner monologue to disturb. Its own verdict: an academic way to call someone dumb.
The pattern behind the list
Look across the 15 and the common thread is self-control, honesty and awareness of others. Status, in the video’s view, tracks how reliable and considerate you appear.
The creators close by asking which behavior made you internally label someone low status.
FAQ
What lowers your social status the fastest?
According to the video, things like bad hygiene, being caught talking nonsense, being bad with money and lacking emotional control. They signal low self-control or a lack of honesty.
Why does looking tired lower your status?
The more tired you look, the more you had to work, suggesting you do not yet own your freedom. In high society, it says, telling someone they look tired is an insult.
Does being bad with money affect how people see you?
Yes, the video says it signals poor self-control and poor priorities over time, and it puts a group’s resources at risk.
How can being wrong lower your status?
Going against the crowd and turning out wrong gets you labeled stupid. Status comes from being right, especially when it matters.
Is it low status to lack basic life skills?
So. Not being able to cook, do your own laundry, pay your taxes or handle small repairs shows you have not become a complete adult.
Keep reading
- 15 Things That Instantly Lower Status
- 15 Things That Instantly Grant Status
- 15 Things Poor People Think Rich People Do (That They Actually Don’t)
