I’m pretty sure most everyone here already knows this, but the perception of arrogance is basically a signalling/counter-signalling problem. If you boast (produce expensive signals of your own fitness), that tells people you are not too poor to have anything to boast about. But it can also signal that you have a need to brag to be noticed, which in turn can be interpreted to mean you aren’t truly the best of the best. The basic question is context.
Is there a serious danger your potential contributions will be missed? If so, it is wisest to boast. Is there already an arms race of other boasts to compete with? Is boasting so cheap nobody will pay it any attention? In that case, the best strategy is to stun people with unexpected modesty. You can also save resources that way, as long as nobody interprets that as a need to save resources.
Pulling off the modesty trick can turn out to be harder than an effective boast, which is of course related to why it works. People have to receive the information that you are competent somehow—a subtle nudge of some kind, preexisting reputation, etc. It also comes to a point of saturation, just like loud/direct boasting does, it just is harder to notice when it does.
So when someone unexpectedly acts arrogant in a niche where modesty has become commonplace, my theory is that it can actually act as a counter-counter-signal. To pull it off they would have to somehow distinguish their arrogance from that of a low-status blowhard who is only making noise because otherwise they wouldn’t be noticed.
Logically extrapolating this, we might then get the more seemingly modest counter-counter-counter signaler, who is able to signal (through a supremely sophisticated mechanism) that they don’t need to signal arrogance and separate themselves from modest folk who are so pretentious as to signal their modesty by keeping quiet in order to prevent themselves from being confused with blowhards who signal expensively. However, for counter(3)-signaling to be an advantage there would first need to be a significant population of counter(2)-signalers to compete against. I’m guessing this probably just sort of slides into different kinds of signal/counter-signal forms rather than going infinitely meta.
I’m pretty sure most everyone here already knows this, but the perception of arrogance is basically a signalling/counter-signalling problem. If you boast (produce expensive signals of your own fitness), that tells people you are not too poor to have anything to boast about. But it can also signal that you have a need to brag to be noticed, which in turn can be interpreted to mean you aren’t truly the best of the best. The basic question is context.
Is there a serious danger your potential contributions will be missed? If so, it is wisest to boast. Is there already an arms race of other boasts to compete with? Is boasting so cheap nobody will pay it any attention? In that case, the best strategy is to stun people with unexpected modesty. You can also save resources that way, as long as nobody interprets that as a need to save resources.
Pulling off the modesty trick can turn out to be harder than an effective boast, which is of course related to why it works. People have to receive the information that you are competent somehow—a subtle nudge of some kind, preexisting reputation, etc. It also comes to a point of saturation, just like loud/direct boasting does, it just is harder to notice when it does.
So when someone unexpectedly acts arrogant in a niche where modesty has become commonplace, my theory is that it can actually act as a counter-counter-signal. To pull it off they would have to somehow distinguish their arrogance from that of a low-status blowhard who is only making noise because otherwise they wouldn’t be noticed.
Logically extrapolating this, we might then get the more seemingly modest counter-counter-counter signaler, who is able to signal (through a supremely sophisticated mechanism) that they don’t need to signal arrogance and separate themselves from modest folk who are so pretentious as to signal their modesty by keeping quiet in order to prevent themselves from being confused with blowhards who signal expensively. However, for counter(3)-signaling to be an advantage there would first need to be a significant population of counter(2)-signalers to compete against. I’m guessing this probably just sort of slides into different kinds of signal/counter-signal forms rather than going infinitely meta.