What Makes A Person Better Than Another: Hardwired for Hierarchy

Six Tuscan Poets (1569) by Giorgio Vasari

We are a social creatures and we constantly seek to find our worth to each other, to ourselves, to society. Some would say that it is built into us and others will say that it has been invented. There is research that indicates that social hierarchy may actually be hardwired into us. Somewhere deep in our brain we have the encoding that pushes our mental hardwiring to chronically compare ourselves to others. Consider, 

Human Brain Appears "Hard-Wired" for Hierarchy

I honestly don't believe you need to be a brain scientist to figure out that most animals have a pecking order and that humans also have one. Likewise, we probably could intuitively understand that there are some advantage and pleasure to winning over others. We might even go as far as to say it is based in our need for survival and pushing our species to adapt (Yes I know its way way out there!)

Throughout all of my experience and people I have met I do believe I understand what actually makes one better then another. It isn't the toys they have, the amount of friends they have, the hierarchy of their position, the accumulation of power or any such things. It has nothing to do with their religion or their professed values. It comes down to a concept called...

Character 

You can read more about that in 'Character Strengths as “Values in Action”: Linking Character Strengths With Values Theory – An Exploratory Study of the Case of Gratitude and Self-Transcendence'

Character is the defining trait that cuts across our social system. Those who have it will act with honor and integrity and those who do not have character will fall back to maintaining or pushing their social position. The quest for character or the quest for status have been a raging debate for centuries. Where the pendulum swings determines the nature and social expectations of our society.

Character still counts as a contributing factor in subjective worth, in society I will say some others are more focus on the hierarchy side of things. Micro and macro. Encouraging character above superficial social perception is important least we manage to a floor benchmark. Building a great nation needs new ideas, new inventions, new ways of doing things and that doesn't typically just come from a sliver of society. Character comes from any background but often is found in increased frequency among those who had opportunities to build it.