<p>‘Will Storr is one of our best journalists of ideas … The Status Game might be his best yet’ James Marriott, Books of the Year, The TimesWhat drives our political and moral beliefs? What makes us like some things and dislike others? What shapes how we behave, and misbehave, in groups? What makes you, you?For centuries, philosophers and scholars have described human behaviour in terms of sex, power and money. In The Status Game, bestselling author Will Storr radically turns this thinking on its head by arguing that it is our irrepressible craving for status that ultimately defines who we are.From the era of the hunter-gatherer to today, when we exist as workers in the globalised economy and citizens of online worlds, the need for status has always been wired into us. A wealth of research shows that how much of it we possess dramatically affects not only our happiness and wellbeing but also our physical health – and without sufficient status, we become more ill, and live shorter lives. It’s an unconscious obsession that drives the best and worst of our innovation, arts and civilisation as well as our murders, wars and genocides. But why is status such an all-consuming prize? What happens if it’s taken away from us? And how can our unquenchable thirst for it explain cults, moral panics, conspiracy theories, the rise of social media and the ‘culture wars’ of today?On a breathtaking journey through time and culture, The Status Game offers a sweeping rethink of human psychology that will change how you see others – and how you see yourself.</p>

The Status Game: On Human Life and How to Play it

Health, Fitness & Dieting

WILL STORR

Psychology & Counseling

William Collins

When journalist and ghost sceptic Will Storr heads to Philadelphia to meet Lou Gentile, a demonologist, he expects a little fun with an amusing eccentric. What he gets are terrifying experiences of spectral lights and horrific demonic growling - and all of his safe, adult preconceptions about ghosts instantly vanish. In the cold light of day, Will decides on a quest for the truth about ghosts. He meets professional paranormal investigators and takes part in seances and a vigil in the most haunted house in Britain, tries out divining rods and ouija boards, and goes on set with TV's "Most Haunted". But Will also seeks out the sceptics in clinical psychology and philosophy who ask if spirits are really just in our heads. His journey is full of bizarre, terrifying and hilarious experiences, each one a new insight into life, death and what might come after.

Will Storr Versus the Supernatural

Religion & Spirituality

Occult & Paranormal

Ebury Press

Will Storr was in the tropical north of Australia, excavating fossils with a celebrity creationist, when he asked himself a simple question. Why don't facts work? Why, that is, did the obviously intelligent man beside him sincerely believe in Adam and Eve, the Garden of Eden and a six-thousand-year-old Earth, in spite of the evidence against them? It was the start of a journey that would lead Storr all over the world - from Texas to Warsaw to the Outer Hebrides - meeting an extraordinary cast of modern heretics whom he tries his best to understand. He goes on a tour of Holocaust sites with David Irving and a band of neo-Nazis, experiences his own murder during "past life regression" hypnosis, discusses the looming One World Government with iconic climate sceptic Lord Monckton and investigates the tragic life and death of a woman who believed her parents were high priests in a baby-eating cult. Using a unique mix of highly personal memoir, investigative journalism and the latest research from neuroscience and experimental psychology, Storr reveals how the stories we tell ourselves about the world invisibly shape our beliefs, and how the neurological "hero maker" inside us all can so easily lead to self-deception, toxic partisanship and science denial.

The Heretics: Adventures with the Enemies of Science

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Picador Hardbacks

Selfie: How the West Became Self-Obsessed

Anthropology

Pan Macmillan/ Picador

Selfie: How We Became So Self-Obsessed and What It's Doing to Us

Abrams Press

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Books by WILL STORR