Staying Out of Your Neighbor’s Business
Humans can be a competitive lot. The way we posture and position ourselves to stand out in a group seems to happen instinctively. After all, in the past we competed for resources and survival. Our lives depended on it. Today, we still compete, but for different reasons.
Instead of food, we compete for attention and social currency. To figure out if we’re “winning,” we use visual shortcuts, and money offers one of the easiest ones. We look around and compare how we’re doing with what we see.
Read the rest of the article on The New York Times.