Like the answer to a riddle, status is all around us, but it can't always be seen or heard. The silent switchboard behind our professional and personal interactions, status dictates our place on the guest list, in the room, at the table; through its connections to class, race and gender, it affords some of us power and wealth and others empty promises.

But why does status so often go unnoticed? How does it influence everything from social inequality to personal relationships? And what changing forces have come to bear on the high or low status we've ascribed ourselves and others over the centuries?

Griffith Review 85: Status Anxiety grapples with the fallout of our status anxiety and explores what happens when we don't measure up.