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How does one distinguish between a person acting from genuine good intentions and a person who is merely "virtue signalling"? (I say "merely virtue signalling"
by Veen 10y ago
How does one distinguish between a person acting from genuine good intentions and a person who is merely "virtue signalling"?
(I say "merely virtue signalling" because there's nothing intrinsically wrong with virtue signalling if it's accompanied by consistently virtuous actions)
I'd suggest consistency as a heuristic. Is the person consistently "good". Are their actions and speech inconsistent or hypocritical? Brin, I think, would pass that test.
- dragonwriter 10y ago> How does one distinguish between a person acting from genuine good intentions and a person who is merely "virtue signalling"? Not only is the determination usual just a reflection of preexisting bias in the determiner, but I think it matters less than people tend to portray, at least in pragmatic terms. Virtue signalling can do as much to reinforce the norm that those genuinely in favor of the message wish to advance as a social norm as honest advocacy.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- nickpsecurity 10y agoIt's always the same. You look at their prior beliefs (i.e. motives), actions so far, and incentives. A certain amount of consistency and self-sacrifice will happen if it's virtue. Whereas virtue signaling is often more about creating appearance of virtue for selfish gain. You might want to look into politics and marketing to understand more about that sort of thing. Those specialize in it. ;)