[Link] How Signaling Ossifies Behavior

Jayson_Virissimo

Here is a new post at EconLog in which Bryan Caplan discusses how signalling contributes to the status quo bias.

The lesson: In the real world, signaling naturally tends to ossify behavior - to lock in whatever the status quo happens to be. If you're an optimist, you can protest, "It's only a tendency." But even an optimist should admit that this tendency leads to atypically slow and unreliable progress.

Here is a new post at EconLog in which Bryan Caplan discusses how signalling contributes to the status quo bias.

The lesson: In the real world, signaling naturally tends to ossify behavior - to lock in whatever the status quo happens to be. If you're an optimist, you can protest, "It's only a tendency." But even an optimist should admit that this tendency leads to atypically slow and unreliable progress.

How much conformity people expect from you depends heavily on the culture you're in. Contrast Japanese culture and Burning Man culture, for instance.

"Intercultural conformity comparison" doesn't seem like a trivial problem to me. What it means to conform is different in different cultures. In Japan it might mean using polite language. At Burning Man it might mean not being greedy (based on skimming the Wikipedia article; I have no first-hand experience). People at Burning Man might care less about polite language, but that just suggests that they use something other than polite language as a social signal of respect. It doesn't mean they've stopped caring entirely about the concept of respect... (read more)

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[Link] How Signaling Ossifies Behavior

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[Link] How Signaling Ossifies Behavior

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