I read these examples and it seems to me like a clear case of rational analysis going crazy. You see, there is no systematic basis for the correctness of these interpretations. It may have been established that selfishness can act as a valid interpretation for these examples, but what says that this interpretation is necessarily more correct than any other? Or even that there is a correct interpretation? These questions are far more important, and without answering them, these interpretations are frankly worthless. It’s like throwing a fishing line into the pacific ocean, catching a paltry fish or two, and saying “Aha! Now I know what’s there!”
I did explain a link between the definition of status and the reliability of selfishness as evidence, but I agree that a reader could justifiably remain skeptical that “selfishness signals status” after reading the post.
However, selfishness does signal status. An experiment that will settle this is to come up with your own examples and take a poll of people’s perceptions (preferably with IQs in the bottom three quartiles, because the top quartile is capable of having one thought after another in a chain of sequitors, and who knows how that could skew their perceptions).
I read these examples and it seems to me like a clear case of rational analysis going crazy. You see, there is no systematic basis for the correctness of these interpretations. It may have been established that selfishness can act as a valid interpretation for these examples, but what says that this interpretation is necessarily more correct than any other? Or even that there is a correct interpretation? These questions are far more important, and without answering them, these interpretations are frankly worthless. It’s like throwing a fishing line into the pacific ocean, catching a paltry fish or two, and saying “Aha! Now I know what’s there!”
I did explain a link between the definition of status and the reliability of selfishness as evidence, but I agree that a reader could justifiably remain skeptical that “selfishness signals status” after reading the post.
However, selfishness does signal status. An experiment that will settle this is to come up with your own examples and take a poll of people’s perceptions (preferably with IQs in the bottom three quartiles, because the top quartile is capable of having one thought after another in a chain of sequitors, and who knows how that could skew their perceptions).