Any asset of a politician that is not about signalling will be used as a metric for the quality of his character, since it has not yet been gamed and provides a better metric. As soon as politicians realize that people are using that asset as a metric, they will start gaming it, making that asset less useful as a metric. Over time, a politician’s entire existence becomes a game of trying to achieve perfect signalling.
What makes you so surprised that a politician might choose his/her spouse based on signalling? It may even be a mutually knowing arrangement (Hillary and Bill Clinton).
Politicians are all signalling.
Any asset of a politician that is not about signalling will be used as a metric for the quality of his character, since it has not yet been gamed and provides a better metric. As soon as politicians realize that people are using that asset as a metric, they will start gaming it, making that asset less useful as a metric. Over time, a politician’s entire existence becomes a game of trying to achieve perfect signalling.
What makes you so surprised that a politician might choose his/her spouse based on signalling? It may even be a mutually knowing arrangement (Hillary and Bill Clinton).