I’m actually just saying this norm imposes substantial costs by impeding communication.
You indicated that you would punish people for answering the literal question honestly:
all I can tell you is that if we’re casual acquaintances, or coworkers, or similar, and I greet you with “How are you?” and you respond by talking about thing that have been going on in your life lately, that will make me quite a bit less likely to want to interact with you at all henceforth.
I’m pointing out that a norm of punishing such behavior prevents me from actually asking the question in the most straightforward terms available. This substantially increases the cost of this sort of communication.
It seems like you’re assuming a follow-up argument along the lines of: therefore, it doesn’t make sense that someone might locally want to follow the norm or be protected by it. But I’m actually not saying that. I’m just saying that punishing people for taking “how are you?” literally prevents some communication.
Yes. I understand what you’re saying. What I would like you to either acknowledge as correct, or clearly state your disagreement with, is the proposition that this result you describe constitutes the said social norm working as intended.
I’m actually just saying this norm imposes substantial costs by impeding communication.
You indicated that you would punish people for answering the literal question honestly:
I’m pointing out that a norm of punishing such behavior prevents me from actually asking the question in the most straightforward terms available. This substantially increases the cost of this sort of communication.
It seems like you’re assuming a follow-up argument along the lines of: therefore, it doesn’t make sense that someone might locally want to follow the norm or be protected by it. But I’m actually not saying that. I’m just saying that punishing people for taking “how are you?” literally prevents some communication.
Yes. I understand what you’re saying. What I would like you to either acknowledge as correct, or clearly state your disagreement with, is the proposition that this result you describe constitutes the said social norm working as intended.
Yes, that’s the social norm working as intended, insofar as “intent” is a relevant paradigm here.