I think that by cracking down on public and school-sanctioned forms of drinking, the administration will force drinking underground. However, I think that this will do a lot to break the drinking culture. Status is ultimately defined by your peers and their evaluations on your behavior. Status is collectively defined and assigned. If you have such a fractured, fragmented drinking cultures, as would happen if drinking was confined to the few scattered bars in Claremont, or in the rooms, or even on other campuses, there would be a less cohesive definition of high status behaviors (such as drinking = status). Add on to the fact that the drinking is less visible or engaging to those who are not in your immediate vicinity (such as the fact that no one cares in a bar who’s the most wasted unless that person is dancing on a table, or the fact that unless someone is passed out in the hall, no one sees/cares what’s going on in the rooms of their acquaintances), will lessen the impact drinking has on status. If no one but your friends know how much/how hard you party, no one but your friends will assign you status. It’s how culture works. Unless a significant majority of CMC’ers decided to convene at one specific place frequently (one bar, or one off-campus location/party), drinking will immediately become more clique-y, and therefore it will be less about a large-scale status game being played out among a whole school.

I think that by cracking down on public and school-sanctioned forms of drinking, the administration will force drinking underground. However, I think that this will do a lot to break the drinking culture. Status is ultimately defined by your peers and their evaluations on your behavior. Status is collectively defined and assigned. If you have such a fractured, fragmented drinking cultures, as would happen if drinking was confined to the few scattered bars in Claremont, or in the rooms, or even on other campuses, there would be a less cohesive definition of high status behaviors (such as drinking = status). Add on to the fact that the drinking is less visible or engaging to those who are not in your immediate vicinity (such as the fact that no one cares in a bar who’s the most wasted unless that person is dancing on a table, or the fact that unless someone is passed out in the hall, no one sees/cares what’s going on in the rooms of their acquaintances), will lessen the impact drinking has on status. If no one but your friends know how much/how hard you party, no one but your friends will assign you status. It’s how culture works. Unless a significant majority of CMC’ers decided to convene at one specific place frequently (one bar, or one off-campus location/party), drinking will immediately become more clique-y, and therefore it will be less about a large-scale status game being played out among a whole school.

This same critique applies your other citations: drinkers earn more because of status effects, people are social after drinking mostly due to expectancy effects, critiquing peers is status lowering, and pick up artists know a lot about status.

Drinkers do earn more than non drinkers, but there are so many confounding factors which can affect this that you cannot attribute the effect solely to status. People are more social after drinking and there are expectation effects to a degree, but the majority of effects are due to physiological changes despite what that NYT opinion column you cited states. Critiquing peers can be status lowering if one is mean and unreasonable, but there is a reason we have a peer review system throughout academia. If one makes well reasoned arguments critiquing a peer, then one gains status, despite what the that random web page you cited states. And pick up artists don’t know much about status. They know how to psychologically manipulate vulnerable persons and use social pressure to get what they want.

There is nothing wrong with having an opinion on this topic, but the rampant overgeneralization is vexing.

This same critique applies your other citations: drinkers earn more because of status effects, people are social after drinking mostly due to expectancy effects, critiquing peers is status lowering, and pick up artists know a lot about status.

Drinkers do earn more than non drinkers, but there are so many confounding factors which can affect this that you cannot attribute the effect solely to status. People are more social after drinking and there are expectation effects to a degree, but the majority of effects are due to physiological changes despite what that NYT opinion column you cited states. Critiquing peers can be status lowering if one is mean and unreasonable, but there is a reason we have a peer review system throughout academia. If one makes well reasoned arguments critiquing a peer, then one gains status, despite what the that random web page you cited states. And pick up artists don’t know much about status. They know how to psychologically manipulate vulnerable persons and use social pressure to get what they want.

There is nothing wrong with having an opinion on this topic, but the rampant overgeneralization is vexing.

Kenley and Charles, a simple theory is that Hub Quiz is on Friday nights, when there isn’t much going on. People can complement their Thursday & Saturday drinking with a dry Friday night. Am I happy that our school is so drinking/party oriented? Not especially.

Lewis, I believe that a lot of people don’t enjoy drinking but do it anyway (or have come to believe that it’s fun), because everyone’s doing it and they seem to be enjoying themselves. For example, think back to the first time you ever drank beer; it probably didn’t taste great. I understand that correlation doesn’t mean causation; I was providing a theory to try and explain the evidence. Obviously there are exceptions to any rule, like nondrinkers who succeed in the workplace.

While I don’t really appreciate the tactics, pick up artists have an excellent understanding of high and low status.

Here is some evidence that drinking raises status:

Kenley and Charles, a simple theory is that Hub Quiz is on Friday nights, when there isn’t much going on. People can complement their Thursday & Saturday drinking with a dry Friday night. Am I happy that our school is so drinking/party oriented? Not especially.

Lewis, I believe that a lot of people don’t enjoy drinking but do it anyway (or have come to believe that it’s fun), because everyone’s doing it and they seem to be enjoying themselves. For example, think back to the first time you ever drank beer; it probably didn’t taste great. I understand that correlation doesn’t mean causation; I was providing a theory to try and explain the evidence. Obviously there are exceptions to any rule, like nondrinkers who succeed in the workplace.

While I don’t really appreciate the tactics, pick up artists have an excellent understanding of high and low status.

Here is some evidence that drinking raises status:

While the topic of the article was controversial and I support many of your ideas, I do feel that you have over-theorized most of this article… for instance,

“it’s because people who drink have higher status than nondrinkers, and thus are more likely to get paid more, compete in the workplace, and get bonuses.”

Remember that correlation does NOT imply causation. Most of at CMC drink causally, if not heavily. However, there are so many people at our school and others who do not enjoy drinking but have excellent social skills and will succeed in obtaining their “bonus” at the end of the year.

While the topic of the article was controversial and I support many of your ideas, I do feel that you have over-theorized most of this article… for instance,

“it’s because people who drink have higher status than nondrinkers, and thus are more likely to get paid more, compete in the workplace, and get bonuses.”

Remember that correlation does NOT imply causation. Most of at CMC drink causally, if not heavily. However, there are so many people at our school and others who do not enjoy drinking but have excellent social skills and will succeed in obtaining their “bonus” at the end of the year.