Here’s a news report about a study on the negative health consequences of hierarchy for those on the lower end of the pecking order. The study found that low status leads to genetic-level changes in the immune system for female rhesus macaques. It’s not simply the case that healthy individuals end up higher in social rank.The disruption in immune function is a result of occupying a position of low status: “status drives immune health, rather than vice-versa.”
At least for rhesus monkeys.
One can only wonder about the immune effects of life in a police state such as ours, where true status is restricted to an elite class, and among the masses is a function of the transient economic power to purchase the most recent must-have consumer sparkly.
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