Every conforming action doubles as an unconscious status signal readable by others.

Evidence

Of course, status claims and appraisals are not always conscious acts. We all implicitly signal every day through our behavior, possessions, speech, and knowledge, and we read everyone else’s behavior as signals. This means that every action we take—in conforming to convention—transcends the action itself and becomes a sign. Beck’s preference for Japanese noise music is not just the enjoyment of distorted dissonance, but when publicized, serves as a clue into understanding Beck as a musician. He won over the higher-status Thurston Moore through name-dropping Fluxus, Japanese noise, and kitsch disco. They became frequent musical collaborators, and in 2011 Beck produced Moore’s solo album Demolished Thoughts. — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 195

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Concrete case of taste-signaling as social capitial; links to the trees/grafting argument about signaling in taste communities.
• XREF: connects to: Withholding attention is itself one legitimate action among many; Every human act expresses the whole person, not a fragment — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on…, 1334; People marked as suspects continuously calculate how their bodies are perceived. — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 425 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Status-seeking drives humans to comply with conventions that then reshape perception. #corroborates (0.85) — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 123
• A status symbol must plausibly serve an everyday function to be convincing. #qualifies (0.79) — W. David Marx, Status and Culture, 207
• People marked as suspects continuously calculate how their bodies are perceived. #exemplifies (0.78) — Saher Selod, Forever Suspect_ Racialized…, 425
• Every human act expresses the whole person, not a fragment #expands (0.76) — Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness, 1334
• A non-costly action can still credibly signal sincere belief. #complicates (0.74)
• Withholding attention is itself one legitimate action among many #qualifies (0.72)
• Every spontaneous movement contains rudimentary elements of conscious leadership and discipline #complicates (0.72) — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 805