status and attention

People confuse status with social standing. You can have dustmen who play high status (head high, never ask permission) and CEOs and lords who play low status (ask permission, apologise). Status is a just a way of playing a role- and the easiest way to fix the style in your mind is to ask what level of permission does the role play assume? Roughly speaking, the cluster of behaviours that seem to go with never asking permission means you are playing high status; what seems to go with asking permission is low status play.

People may instinctively like the idea of playing 'high status' (which is the way to think about it, rather than 'being' high status) yet not everyone does? Why?

Because we play the status level that gets us the most attention. The most meaning both quantity and quality. Playing low status may guarantee far more attention in many situations. On the other hand, a bit of lordly isolation may be a low price to pay for some damn good boot licking...