In The Status Game, writer Will Storr outlined that we can achieve status in three ways: dominance, competence, and virtue. Losing dismantles the first two and potentially impacts the third. It should come as no surprise why losing in something that is meaningful and important can be so tricky. But there’s something that makes it worse: when the assault on our status is there for all to see. When we lose in public, we face humiliation. A direct attack on who we are, showing the world that we are incompetent and a failure.
