[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.

given that you've managed to make "topless" in to a hygiene issue

Sweat is often present! Therefore, OBVIOUSLY, germs are. Obviously. And That's Terrible. (I feel the need to mention that I say this as an outsider -- I merely have a very strong impression that Americans tend to be rather overwrought on the subject of hygiene.)

As for the sexism angle, I think men are expected to be careless about some part of their appearance. But more realistically, we're culturally encouraged to view exposure of breasts as a sexual signal, but not pecs. So breasts are automatically 'dirtier'.

Possibly leashed, to help clarify that you're just a pet. Although that might get taken as BDSM or beastiality,

Whereas it's roleplay? (I confess that before you made that distinction, it didn't occur to me that petplay was different enough from BDSM to be considered as a separate thing.)

Anyway it's unclear to me what sort of scenario has actually played out for you. How much of this is based on your experiences, and how much on extrapolation?

Wearing a price sign on one's head... clearly rude since it's violating their property/ownership boundaries. I had real trouble parsing that. You mean that it violates expectations of 'what can be owned' and 'who can own what'?

That sounds like 'their problem' rather than 'rude', but maybe those are often the same thing.

I think your original point is perfectly valid. I was trying to figure out if there was anything other than unthinking gut disgust underlying these responses.

Anyway it's unclear to me what sort of scenario has actually played out for you. How much of this is based on your experiences, and how much on extrapolation?

I've gone to a video store on all fours, and I've gone out leashed, but not at the same time. I've been openly affectionate to multiple people (all of us the same gender). I've done all sorts of gender bending. The price sign is also a personal example - I went to an electronics store, they had a triangular price sign that worked perfectly as a hat, and it was clear the employee that asked me to st... (read more)

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[Link] How Signaling Ossifies Behavior

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[Link] How Signaling Ossifies Behavior

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