Gaining social status and becoming more attractive are useful goals because more attractive and higher-status people are treated better (see Halo Effect) and because they increase one’s self-confidence. But the desire to improve on these fronts is seen as vain, as a negative virtue. I think there are three reasons this could be:
Our evolutionary ancestors who sought status were more likely to have children, so this desire is biologically hardwired into us. Someone who takes action to increase their status might be doing so out of a cold, rational calculation that says it would help them to achieve their goals, but it’s more likely that they’re doing it because it feels good.
Often, out of this irrational motivation, people take actions which increase their status but aren’t useful in achieving their goals. For example, buying a fancy, expensive car probably isn’t worth the money because there are more efficient ways to convert money into status and it might make one come off as extravagant and douchey instead of classy.
Status and attractiveness are zero-sum games because they only mean anything in relation to other people. Everyone buying cosmetic plastic surgery would be a waste of surgeons’ time because humanity wouldn’t be better off overall.[1] This means that spending resources to move up the status ladder is like defecting against the rest of humanity (see tragedy of the commons). To prevent people from defecting, society established a norm of judging negatively those who are clearly chasing status, and so people have to be sneaky about it. They either have to have some sort of plausible deniability (“I only bought these expensive clothes because I like how they look, not because I’m chasing status”) or a genuine reason other than “I want people to treat me better” (“I only got plastic surgery because my unattractiveness was having an especially negative effect on my mental health”).
So, here’s the result: someone who rationally chases status and makes themselves more attractive in order to better achieve their goals, even if altruistic, is seen instead as someone succumbing to their natural instinct and defecting against the societal norm of not playing the status game.
Although, I’ve heard the argument that if beauty is intrinsically valuable, humanity would be better off if everyone bought plastic surgery because there would be more beauty in the world.
Conflates attractiveness and status. Talks about them as if they have the same properties, which might not be the case.
Do people actually see the pursuit of increased attractiveness and status negatively? For example, if someone said “I want to go to the gym to look better”, I think that would be seen as admirable self-improvement, not vanity.
Is the norm of judging vanity negatively actually a result of the zero-sum game? I don’t know enough about sociology to know how societal norms form.
Is irrational vanity actually common? Maybe doing things like buying extravagant cars is less common than I think, or these sorts of acts are more “rationally vain” than I think, i.e. they really are cost-effective ways to increase status.
rational vanity
epistemic status: literal shower thought, uncertain
Gaining social status and becoming more attractive are useful goals because more attractive and higher-status people are treated better (see Halo Effect) and because they increase one’s self-confidence. But the desire to improve on these fronts is seen as vain, as a negative virtue. I think there are three reasons this could be:
Our evolutionary ancestors who sought status were more likely to have children, so this desire is biologically hardwired into us. Someone who takes action to increase their status might be doing so out of a cold, rational calculation that says it would help them to achieve their goals, but it’s more likely that they’re doing it because it feels good.
Often, out of this irrational motivation, people take actions which increase their status but aren’t useful in achieving their goals. For example, buying a fancy, expensive car probably isn’t worth the money because there are more efficient ways to convert money into status and it might make one come off as extravagant and douchey instead of classy.
Status and attractiveness are zero-sum games because they only mean anything in relation to other people. Everyone buying cosmetic plastic surgery would be a waste of surgeons’ time because humanity wouldn’t be better off overall.[1] This means that spending resources to move up the status ladder is like defecting against the rest of humanity (see tragedy of the commons). To prevent people from defecting, society established a norm of judging negatively those who are clearly chasing status, and so people have to be sneaky about it. They either have to have some sort of plausible deniability (“I only bought these expensive clothes because I like how they look, not because I’m chasing status”) or a genuine reason other than “I want people to treat me better” (“I only got plastic surgery because my unattractiveness was having an especially negative effect on my mental health”).
So, here’s the result: someone who rationally chases status and makes themselves more attractive in order to better achieve their goals, even if altruistic, is seen instead as someone succumbing to their natural instinct and defecting against the societal norm of not playing the status game.
Although, I’ve heard the argument that if beauty is intrinsically valuable, humanity would be better off if everyone bought plastic surgery because there would be more beauty in the world.
Potential issues with this thought:
Conflates attractiveness and status. Talks about them as if they have the same properties, which might not be the case.
Do people actually see the pursuit of increased attractiveness and status negatively? For example, if someone said “I want to go to the gym to look better”, I think that would be seen as admirable self-improvement, not vanity.
Is the norm of judging vanity negatively actually a result of the zero-sum game? I don’t know enough about sociology to know how societal norms form.
Is irrational vanity actually common? Maybe doing things like buying extravagant cars is less common than I think, or these sorts of acts are more “rationally vain” than I think, i.e. they really are cost-effective ways to increase status.