There is no reliable superficial signal for hidden virtues and abilities which are both universally admired and difficult / impossible to acquire.
What about being seen with lots of friends without looking like the kind of person who would get lots of friends regardless of intelligence, happiness, kindness and effectiveness? Countersignalling FTW!
Hehe, that is a clever/amusing idea. But even if it’s true that this constitutes a meaningful signal (there are plenty of ways to get friends that do not involve intelligence, kindness, or effectiveness that leave no visual cues—like extroversion), it’s a signal so subtle that I don’t think I would pick up on it.
Edit: It would work for simpler things though—we wouldn’t be as impressed with David’s intelligence if his muscles were as large as Goliath’s.
My reference class was “traits I would want in a friend”. I don’t really care about how often my friends feel the need to be alone.
Extroversion is probably correlated with happiness—but then again, if we accept introversion-extroversion as intrinsic personality traits, who is to say that a lonely, socially awkard extrovert won’t give the same test results as a sad introvert? Correlation(extroversion, income) supposedly has a inverse U shaped curve.
Actually, the truth is I don’t pick friends based on raw happiness either...it was shorthand for general emotional maturity. I wouldn’t want to be less friends with someone if they were depressed, for example—it’s just that I don’t want anger, anxiety, insecurity, and other sorts of aggression directed at me, and people who frequently experience negative emotions are more likely to direct aggression at others.
What about being seen with lots of friends without looking like the kind of person who would get lots of friends regardless of intelligence, happiness, kindness and effectiveness? Countersignalling FTW!
Hehe, that is a clever/amusing idea. But even if it’s true that this constitutes a meaningful signal (there are plenty of ways to get friends that do not involve intelligence, kindness, or effectiveness that leave no visual cues—like extroversion), it’s a signal so subtle that I don’t think I would pick up on it.
Edit: It would work for simpler things though—we wouldn’t be as impressed with David’s intelligence if his muscles were as large as Goliath’s.
I would have counted extroversion as in the same reference class as intelligence, happiness, kindness and effectiveness.
My reference class was “traits I would want in a friend”. I don’t really care about how often my friends feel the need to be alone.
Extroversion is probably correlated with happiness—but then again, if we accept introversion-extroversion as intrinsic personality traits, who is to say that a lonely, socially awkard extrovert won’t give the same test results as a sad introvert? Correlation(extroversion, income) supposedly has a inverse U shaped curve.
Actually, the truth is I don’t pick friends based on raw happiness either...it was shorthand for general emotional maturity. I wouldn’t want to be less friends with someone if they were depressed, for example—it’s just that I don’t want anger, anxiety, insecurity, and other sorts of aggression directed at me, and people who frequently experience negative emotions are more likely to direct aggression at others.