Posting with #ISupportUkraine or #maga is a virtue signal.
Abandoning Twitter for Mastodon or Truth Social is a virtue signal.
Wearing a mask while running outside is a virtue signal.
Investing only in companies that have high ESG scores is a virtue signal.
Bringing your own hemp twine bags to the grocery store is a virtue signal.
Asking the clerk if the water comes in a glass bottle rather than a plastic bottle is a virtue signal.
Driving around in a giant pickup truck with an American flag flying from the bed is a virtue signal.
Buying a Tesla is a virtue signal. And paradoxically, now, so is getting rid of your Tesla.
Virtue signaling is about communicating personal moral values and the moral values of our tribe. It’s one way of gaining or maintaining status.
But there’s usually something more to it than just signaling moral superiority. As humans, we like to take action. We like to do something. We like to do the right thing. These signals are ways of doing something.
But just because you feel strongly and take the virtue-signaling action doesn’t mean that others are doing nothing, believe the wrong things, or are just plain dumb.
They’re just doing different things to make the world a better place.
