The EnvisionaryWe hear about virtue signalling a lot these days, but what exactly does it mean, how are we all prone to virtue signal, and what are its benefits and dangers?
Humans have been virtue-signalling for centuries. It’s a hard-wired societal survival strategy that has only recently become more consciously perceived as being a potentially ‘unvirtuous’ virtue.
In this article, we explore questions such as: Why do we virtue signal? What benefit do we get from virtue signalling? How do we virtue signal without realising it? What are the dangers of virtue signalling in modern society?
Why Do We Virtue Signal?
The reasons why we virtue signalled in the past and why we do today are both the same, and very different.
Our ancestors would blindly virtue-signal as a means of fitting in towards society, and therefore the more people they could be perceived as helping the more chance they have of surviving (of others not going against them).
In that sense, nothing has changed. Humans are programmed to survive, but we have become smarter over the years, so smart that we now question our own programming.
Today we see people virtue-signal and instead of just accepting it as a noble trait in a healthy human being looking to get along with other healthy-minded human beings, we see it as a potential lie, a distrust.
Why has this changed?
There’s simply more competition in the world and we are (unconsciously) competing on a global scale for attention, for survival, and we have learnt that the best way to do it is to be seen as a more righteous person than the next, even if we aren’t.
So, even though we may join forces to virtue signal in common trends (as that group mentality also helps us survive) we still want to be seen as a ‘better’ virtue-signaller than the next person, as that helps us demonstrate our good moral values more than others (and we want other people to think WE are a good person over others).
It comes to a point that people start ‘having a go’ at other people who are virtue-signalling because they don’t like the shine (unconsciously) it takes away from them.
What Benefit Do We Get From Virtue Signalling?
Virtue signalling might get a bad rep in today’s modern society (more on that in a sec) but there are other benefits to virtue signalling other than the obvious survival benefits.
Firstly, when we virtue signal we feel better. Simple. We just feel better when our mind is focused on something virtuous than when it is focused on something negative.
Secondly, it brings people together and as social beings, we need this in so many ways.
Thirdly, and most importantly, virtue signalling can generate positive change in society.
Think of it this way. In a group of strangers forced to interact and establish a leader then likely the loudest or most convincing would prevail. How would they prevail? Through appealing to others through virtue signalling.
People wouldn’t follow someone who puts them at risk and when someone is louder and expressing their opinion others tend to follow that voice (whether the voice is right or not). When you repeat some information enough times then it tends to stick and virtue signalling can work this way, as when you popularise opinion and give a reason for many others to follow it then it only grows in popularity, and over time people tend to assume what is popular is then fact.
As this long and smartly put article suggests, the virtuous side of virtue signalling ‘provides higher-order evidence by conveying confidence and the numbers of people who share a judgment’.
Of course, virtue signalling can be a good or a bad thing, but in terms of creating social change virtue signalling can be a powerful weapon and it’s why we see a lot of it happening today because social media allows a platform for this type of influence to spread.
What Are The Dangers Of Virtue Signalling In Modern Society?
The problem comes when popular becomes monetised, and we see this is where the negative side of virtue signalling has sprung up, both on a business scale and on a personal one.
As we have seen popular opinions are powerful in changing people’s viewpoints, but this can lead to capitalisation of businesses and celebrities who suddenly see the credit in virtue signalling (but who might not truly believe in the issues being raised), but we also this in individuals too who now realise they have to be seen as virtue signalling to be heard too.
The real danger that comes in virtue signalling is that it’s often blind to those doing it, and it can lead towards division rather than unity, as the very nature of virtue signalling is based in survival instincts, in joining bandwagons to be seen as a person who has good morals and therefore should be liked (and survive) rather than someone who is seen as a threat or a bad person (who then becomes the target and judgement of virtue signallers).
This is the issue though. It becomes a with us or against us agenda. To be seen as good often leads towards pointing the finger at something bad, and it then becomes a collective bandwagon march (that is so much easier to join) than an introspective change that is harder to do (but which is the real path to true change and freedom within).
When virtue signalling is the only moral being displayed it can often be exaggerated or insincere because it’s not truly changing the person from the inside, but instead, it stays on the more surface-level collective identity group.
This leads people to join protests in the angst of wanting to be seen like they are doing the right thing, but at the same time, they might be complete hypocrites in what they are actually doing or thinking most of the time.
How Do We Virtue Signal Without Realising It?
This hypocrisy suggests we often virtue signal without realising it.
It’s like climate change activists still driving petrol cars, or non-black people joining the BLM movement despite barely giving the time of the day to anyone outside their own ethnicity or having displayed racist tendencies or judgement in other ways themselves, or saying how you should be healthy and look after your body whilst drinking every weekend.
These are just on main issues. We likely virtue signal every day without realising it as part of our survival. We might try to look good in front of our friends by talking about a sports team we don’t actually really follow or a subject we don’t even like, or we might seek out certain milestones in life and then plaster photos or videos about it on social media to strangers just so we can display our life as being meaningful and morally good.
If we told our ancestors that someday we would be sharing our baby photos with hundreds or thousands of strangers each day they would think we were mad. They may have a point.
Virtue signalling has become an ingrained, indoctrinated response to living today. It generally happens through our tendency to conform to the masses easier than to challenge the masses.
If one person started talking about how they felt discriminated against living in an Asian country being the only white person there they wouldn’t be listened to until enough people also felt that experience, and there was a way to spread that experience.
Instead, we assume that certain social justices are right over others, instead of acknowledging that all forms of social prejudices are wrong. The way virtue signalling works is how we unconsciously become attracted to more popular agendas than others, which is why we need to be careful with it, as otherwise, we might end up as a society polarising only one plight whilst simultaneously disregarding another.
To treat each other as equal humans with equal opportunities (which we should) we need to be more conscious about what we are virtue signalling, as to blindly follow bandwagons without taking a look at our own prejudices first we can end up becoming even more biased to certain viewpoints, instead of open towards the differences of everyone.
The Lessons We Should Learn From Virtue Signalling
Of course, virtue signalling can be a powerful force for social change because it sets up the perfect storm which takes people’s need to be seen as being morally good and a platform that spreads that need easily.
In the most positive way, this can vindicate people’s anger towards morally bad groups such as child molesters, seeing people support each other against such torments of society, but in the most negative way, it can lead to a mindset as filled with anger, hate, judgement, labels, and prejudice as those they are virtue signalling against, and see this hate as justified, whilst losing touch with their own self-control.
The irony becomes when virtue signallers who we think are seeking to add positive progress in the world also create havoc in refusing to abide by rules they think are there to control them. It can lead to the kind of anti-government, anti-capitalist, anti-vaccine, anti-anything mindset that they feel is justified in the face of taking the moral high ground.
However, an even biggest issue is the emphasis being placed far too much on the group consensus rather than the individual conscience.
Underneath we are all good people, we all want good things to happen in our life, and we often mistake thinking that it can only happen when we join social groups that proclaim to be virtuous. Yet, the true goodness in people is found when they become good individuals first, and this means taking responsibility for the good, bad, easy and difficult that comes into your life.
With a strong (and moral) foundation inside yourself, you won’t feel the need to virtue signal for the sake of seeking consensus or to be heard or validated, and instead, you naturally virtue signal anyway because you are standing with strong internal morals and know it’s the right thing to do without the judgement or polarised identity groups that often follow it.
You don’t virtue signal as part of a survival game anymore, you are free from that now, so instead, you focus on bringing meaning to yourself and others, which naturally brings more respect back to you anyway. A win-win-win.