Cynicism for thee but not for me

Is it only your rivals and enemies who seek status and engage in virtue signalling?

Status Competition and Cover Stories

Humans are competitive, social apes. Like other apes, we are motivated by status. But it is low status to be motivated by status. So people develop cover stories that depict themselves as pursuing high-status goals: truth, wisdom, transcendence, justice, authenticity, and so on. In most cases, these cover stories are sincere. People are not lying when describing their goals this way, but the stories are—as with our beliefs and self-narratives more broadly—partly designed for social consumption.

Consider the popular slogan “Dress to express, not to impress.” Many people devote lots of energy, effort, and money to keeping up with fashions and being trendy. But it is lame—unimpressive—to do this just to impress people. So there emerges a cover story: the real reason people care so much about their clothing is to express their inner, authentic selves.

Because people compete for status and competing for status is low status, one way people can try to reduce the status of others—for example, rivals they are competing for status against—is by debunking their cover story. “This person” or “this group”, they might say, “claims to be motivated by lofty ideals, but really they are driven by selfish and petty motives.”

You see this in politics a lot. For example, conservatives often argue that progressives claim to care about “social justice” when really they are driven by status competition and virtue signalling. Likewise, progressives often argue that conservatives claim to care about “traditional values” when really they are motivated to maintain their privileged social position or suck up to those in power.