Anti-inductive is one of the ways a signal can be costly.
Some class signals are costly simply by… costing money. Designer clothes, expensive accessories.
Other signals are costly by costing time. Could be a lot of time to learn something that doesn’t change much afterwards: education, etiquette, accent. Or repeated time spent learning something that keeps changing: fashion.
The most difficult signals to fake are those that require you to have a certain history: school, family connections.
Most class markers evolved to be more complex than JUST money or time. They may include money and time, and they are costly and good components of a signal that one can afford that money or time. But they also generally include other markers of taste, upbringing, or attitudes that can’t be bought easily by someone with money and time. Looking down at the crass neveau riche is a pretty well-known behavior of the upper classes.
Especially for time, it’s not just whether or not you can spend the time, it’s whether you have access to the class-marker-enhancing WAYS to spend that time. Studying fashion in a school won’t do it, you need to be embedded in the environment that’s collectively picking the fashions for THIS GROUP.
This is a good example of something anti-inductive
Anti-inductive is one of the ways a signal can be costly.
Some class signals are costly simply by… costing money. Designer clothes, expensive accessories.
Other signals are costly by costing time. Could be a lot of time to learn something that doesn’t change much afterwards: education, etiquette, accent. Or repeated time spent learning something that keeps changing: fashion.
The most difficult signals to fake are those that require you to have a certain history: school, family connections.
Most class markers evolved to be more complex than JUST money or time. They may include money and time, and they are costly and good components of a signal that one can afford that money or time. But they also generally include other markers of taste, upbringing, or attitudes that can’t be bought easily by someone with money and time. Looking down at the crass neveau riche is a pretty well-known behavior of the upper classes.
Especially for time, it’s not just whether or not you can spend the time, it’s whether you have access to the class-marker-enhancing WAYS to spend that time. Studying fashion in a school won’t do it, you need to be embedded in the environment that’s collectively picking the fashions for THIS GROUP.