Difficult to overstate the role of signaling as a force in human thinking, indeed, few random examples:
Expensive clothes, rings, cars, houses: Signalling ‘I’ve got a lot of spare resources, it’s great to know me/don’t mess with me/I won’t rob you/I’m interesting/...’
Clothes of particular type → signals your politica/religious/… views/lifestyle
Talking about interesting news/persons → signals you can be a valid connection to have as you have links
In basic material economics/markets: All sorts of ways to signal your product is good (often economists refer to e.g.: insurance, public reviewing mechanism, publicity)
LW-er liking to get lots of upvotes to signal his intellect or simply for his post to be a priori not entirely unfounded
Us dumbly washing or ironing clothes or buying new clothes while stained-but-non-smelly or unironed or worn clothes would be functionally just as valuable—well if a major functionality would not exactly be, to signal wealth, care, status..
Me teaching & consulting in a suit because the university uses an age old signalling tool to show: we care about our clients
Doc having his white suit to spread an air of professional doctor-hood to the patient he tricks into not questioning his suggestions and actions
Genetically: many sexually attractive traits have some origin in signaling good quality genes: directly functional body (say strong muscles) and/or ‘proving spare resources to waste on useless signals’ such as most egregiously for the Peacocks/Birds of paradise ← I think humans have the latter capacity too, though I might be wrong/no version comes to mind right now
Intellect etc.! There’s lots of theory that much of our deeper thinking abilities were much less required for basic material survival (hunting etc.), than for social purposes: impress with our stories etc.; signal that what we want is good and not only self-serving. (ok, the latter maybe that is partly not pure ‘signaling’ but seems at least related).
Putting solar panels, driving Tesla, vegtarian … → we’re clean and modern and care about the climate
I see this sort of signaling more and more by individuals and commercial entities, esp. in places where there is low-cost for it. The café that sells “Organic coffee” uses a few cents to buy organic coffee powder to pseudo-signal care and sustainability while it sells you the dirtiest produced chicken sandwich, saving many dollars compared to organic/honestly produced produce.
Of course, shops do this sort of stuff commercially all the time → all sorts of PR is signaling
Companies do all sorts of psychological tricks to signal they’re this or that to motivate its employees too
Politics. For a stylized example consider: Trump or so with his wall promises signalling to those receptive to it that he’d be caring to reduce illegal immigation (while knowing he does/cannot change the situation so much so easily)
Biden or so with his stopping-the-wall promises signalling a leaner treatment of illegal immigrants (while equally knowing he does/cannot change the situation so much so easily)
… list doesn’t stop… but I guess I better stop here :)
I guess the vastness of signaling importantly depends on how narrowly or broadly we define it in terms of: Whether we consciously have in mind to signal something vs. whether we instinctively do/like things that serve for us to signal quality/importance… But both signalling domains seem absolutely vast—and sometimes with actual value for society, but often zero-sum effects i.e. a waste of resources.
Difficult to overstate the role of signaling as a force in human thinking, indeed, few random examples:
Expensive clothes, rings, cars, houses: Signalling ‘I’ve got a lot of spare resources, it’s great to know me/don’t mess with me/I won’t rob you/I’m interesting/...’
Clothes of particular type → signals your politica/religious/… views/lifestyle
Talking about interesting news/persons → signals you can be a valid connection to have as you have links
In basic material economics/markets: All sorts of ways to signal your product is good (often economists refer to e.g.: insurance, public reviewing mechanism, publicity)
LW-er liking to get lots of upvotes to signal his intellect or simply for his post to be a priori not entirely unfounded
Us dumbly washing or ironing clothes or buying new clothes while stained-but-non-smelly or unironed or worn clothes would be functionally just as valuable—well if a major functionality would not exactly be, to signal wealth, care, status..
Me teaching & consulting in a suit because the university uses an age old signalling tool to show: we care about our clients
Doc having his white suit to spread an air of professional doctor-hood to the patient he tricks into not questioning his suggestions and actions
Genetically: many sexually attractive traits have some origin in signaling good quality genes: directly functional body (say strong muscles) and/or ‘proving spare resources to waste on useless signals’ such as most egregiously for the Peacocks/Birds of paradise ← I think humans have the latter capacity too, though I might be wrong/no version comes to mind right now
Intellect etc.! There’s lots of theory that much of our deeper thinking abilities were much less required for basic material survival (hunting etc.), than for social purposes: impress with our stories etc.; signal that what we want is good and not only self-serving. (ok, the latter maybe that is partly not pure ‘signaling’ but seems at least related).
Putting solar panels, driving Tesla, vegtarian … → we’re clean and modern and care about the climate
I see this sort of signaling more and more by individuals and commercial entities, esp. in places where there is low-cost for it. The café that sells “Organic coffee” uses a few cents to buy organic coffee powder to pseudo-signal care and sustainability while it sells you the dirtiest produced chicken sandwich, saving many dollars compared to organic/honestly produced produce.
Of course, shops do this sort of stuff commercially all the time → all sorts of PR is signaling
Companies do all sorts of psychological tricks to signal they’re this or that to motivate its employees too
Politics. For a stylized example consider: Trump or so with his wall promises signalling to those receptive to it that he’d be caring to reduce illegal immigation (while knowing he does/cannot change the situation so much so easily)
Biden or so with his stopping-the-wall promises signalling a leaner treatment of illegal immigrants (while equally knowing he does/cannot change the situation so much so easily)
… list doesn’t stop… but I guess I better stop here :)
I guess the vastness of signaling importantly depends on how narrowly or broadly we define it in terms of: Whether we consciously have in mind to signal something vs. whether we instinctively do/like things that serve for us to signal quality/importance… But both signalling domains seem absolutely vast—and sometimes with actual value for society, but often zero-sum effects i.e. a waste of resources.