The remedy is rarely exhortation. It is a change to the situation so that the easier choice is also the better one. The strange thing about the deadline is not that it exists but that it works, most of the time, for most people. Notice how rarely anyone is argued out of the deadline, and how often they are simply moved past it by a change in circumstance. If you want to see status at work, watch a queue form where there is no reason for one.
Where the model breaks
We describe the departure from the model as an error. We might equally describe the model as a hopeful guess about us. Economists have spent decades modelling status as a quantity. It behaves more like a weather system. Every one of us runs the same shortcut, and every one of us believes we are the exception. Consider the deadline. It is a small thing, and small things are where habits live.
