Nightclub Bouncers: Status Distinctions and Tribal Beliefs

I recently came across this interesting article from the Kellogg School of Management on a study of status distinctions. It looks at how nightclub bouncers have to immediately judge people in the queue and quickly decide whether to let them in. This is an interesting tribal behaviour in the modern age. People belong to social networks (social groupings) based on their norms, rituals and values, and for club-goers, this includes the visible symbols–the clothes people are wearing, whom they’re with, their attitudes–upon which they are judged by bouncers.

People in social groups have three basic needs:

• Belonging (to the tribe/group)
• Beliefs (what the group thinks)
• Escape/Salvation (achieve something, saved from ordinariness of life)

The bouncers can’t easily access the club-goers beliefs, and the club-goers just want to belong; they might not even know the value of what they believe in, but still want to join because celebrities or other people they admire go. The ritual of dressing up to go to a night club (or, say, an event like Henley Royal Regatta) is a residual tribal belief, and certain rituals are associated with certain networks. Facebook is another modern example — people are encouraged to join and socialise with their friends, and belong to a group. Their friends have similar beliefs, and often they are using Facebook as an escape (I think most wouldn’t call using it achieving something, however).

Here is a model of these beliefs (click to enlarge):

In the end it all comes back to these three basic needs.