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wedrifid comments on Organic food, conventional food - Less Wrong Discussion
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I usually treat 'signaling' as the null hypothesis for human behavior: if the behavior doesn't make sense on its own, I assume it is signaling.
If a person is attempting to maximize their health, there are behaviors that have a better cost:effectiveness ratio than buying organic. Most of the people I encounter who buy organic do few to none of these things.
If a person is attempting to signal some sort of association with a the "health-food/green-living/upper-class" tribe (one or all of them) then buying organic makes far more sense.
Having encountered more of the signaling behavior than the healthy behavior anecdotally, the signaling behavior is more likely. I haven't invested any real effort into proving this (People could just be systematically acting in a sub-optimal fashion, for instance) but given how much of what people do is signaling behavior, it is my baseline explanation.
Not only that, most of the actual 'health maximising' behavior that you have seen has probably been done for signalling too.
(Note to self: Find a way to convince yourself that looking like a health maximiser is cool.)
Easiest way is to hang out among other health maximization signalers, I suppose. Then all you have to do is convince yourself that status within your cohort is cool.
This may be one of the main benefits of going to a gym. I also know that one of the reasons having a "gym buddy" is recommended is because then you are more likely to exercise because if you don't then you are letting your buddy down. In fact, other than having someone to spot you, I suspect this is the primary benefit to having an exercise buddy.
I can also lift heavier weights for greater reps over more sets when I have a gym buddy. A combination of competitiveness and encouragement.