Signaling Is Mostly Defensive

The essay argues not only that many social activities are signaling, but that most of that signaling is defensive—aimed at protecting status, avoiding humiliation, and managing judgments rather than aggressively advertising superiority. That shifts the emphasis from upward aspirational signaling (showing off) to downward or protective moves (avoiding loss of face) with different implications for how institutions respond. — If signaling is primarily defensive, policy reforms and cultural critiques that assume public acts are aspirational will misdiagnose incentives and fail to anticipate backlash or gaming.