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.
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.