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This could be one of the most controversial articles I’ve written. There may be a lot of people who disagree with the methods I will be writing about, but when distilled, the content in this article has been tested to positive results.

Before reading this article, familiarize yourself with “The Characteristics of High Status People and Low Status People“. It will help you understand certain behaviors of specific status choices.

The concept of status can be related to the idea of a seesaw:

When one side goes up, the other side goes down.

When artificially modifying status, there are two methods:

1. Modifying your status (moving your side up or down)
2. Modifying their status (moving their side up or down)

So, you have plenty of ways to go. And remember this: it is a seesaw. The seesaw can stall if both people are trying to raise status or lower status at the same time. The solution to this is to counteract the direction the other person is going.

If you are trying to raise your status, and the other person is raising their status at the same time, lower your status instead. The other person must choose to either raise their status (vs your low status), or compensate by raising your status (and lowering their status). You may have to “take a step back to take a step forward” (like lowering your status before re-raising it).

One of my favorite examples of manually changing status plays out like this:

Person A: “You were wrong to do that”

Person B: “You are right. I was wrong”

Person A: “Don’t be too hard on yourself”

Person A lowered B’s status. B lowered their own status. A compensated, and raised B’s status.

Here are some examples of status changing actions:

To raise your status:

• Be confident
• Make strong decisions, and stick to them
• Stand up straight
• Don’t tell entire stories, which makes people ask you questions
• Dress well and practice good hygiene
• Tell stories that put you in a positive light
• Speak without losing eye contact
• Speak with a moderate pace, not to slow, not too fast
• Don’t lose your temper

To raise their status:

• Be complimentary
• Ask questions to show interest
• Give a high-five
• Look them in the eyes, and smile
• Respond positively to stories by nodding, smiling, and laughing appropriately
• Be generous and give a gift

To lower your status:

• Look away while talking
• Apologize
• Speak in a lower volume
• Be uneasy in your choices and speech

To lower their status (WARNING - controversial, could backfire and make you look like a jerk or inadvertently lower your status):

• Pretend to give a high-five or handshake, then take it away. Follow with a smile.
• Don’t pretend to laugh at jokes or be responsive to stories
• Deflect insults
• Make a negative comment about someone’s hygiene (hair, clammy hands, etc). Follow with a smile.
• When someone makes a negative comment towards you, respond with “Don’t you judge me”.

Those are just examples, but gives you an outline of things you can do to manipulate status.

Got some other ways to manipulate status? Let us know!

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