Virtue Signalling

About

Virtue Signalling refers to the public expression of an opinion on a given topic primarily for the purpose of displaying one’s moral superiority before a large audience to solicit their approval. Online, the practice is often associated with various platitudes shared on social media that proclaim one's political affiliation or stance on a variety of hot-button issues related to social justice; it has been criticized by some as a shallow attempt at improving social status within a particular group.

Origin

On April 18th, 2015, the British conservative news site The Spectator^[1] published an article by writer James Bartholomew titled "The awful rise of 'virtue signalling'", which mocked the practice of posting political opinions on social media for the purpose of "indicating that you are kind, decent and virtuous."

Precursors

Within evolutionary anthropology, signalling theory^[6] has been used as a framework to explain various forms of communication between humans, including public displays of commitment to solidify membership within a particular group. In the context of religious groups, anthropologist William Irons argued that the use of "ostentatious" signals of commitment improved trust and cohesion within communities, which he used to provide a possible adaptive explanation for various religious rituals and beliefs.

The similar pejorative karma whore, used as early as January 2000, is often employed in online communities to accuse others of attempting to raise their social standing by pandering to the stereotypical prejudices or trends that are widely accepted by its members.

Spread

On July 21st, 2015, Something Awful user Al Cowens used the phrase "virtue signalling" in a thread about a tuba player walking behind a KKK march (shown below).

On November 5th, 2015, Bartholomew released a short film about virtue signalling, which criticized the practice as a dishonest form of slacktivism (shown below, left). On November 15th, evolutionary behavioral scientist Gad Saad released a podcast describing "hashtag activism" and "flag displays" as examples of virtue signalling, specifically in the context of social media posts following the 2015 Paris Terrorist Attacks (shown below, right).

On December 24th, the Boston Globe^[4] published an article titled "Virtue signalling and other inane platitudes," which mistakenly cited Al Cowens' Something Awful post as the earliest use of the term based on an incorrect reporting from the online database Word Spy.^[3] On January 4th, 2016, the pop culture blog Acculturated^[5] published an article titled "Are You Guilty of 'Virtue-Signaling'?" The same day, Urban Dictionary user Jizz in butt submitted an entry for "virtue signalling," defining it as "saying you love or hate something to show off what a virtuous person you are" (shown below). On January 20th, The Guardian^[2] published an op-ed piece titled "'Virtue-signalling' – the putdown that has passed is sell-by date," which argued that the term was being overused in order to win political arguments.

In February, CGP Grey discussed the phenomenon of virtue signalling during an episode of the "Hello Internet" podcast.^[4] On April 10th, The Guardian^[3] published an article op-ed article by writer Zoe Williams, who likened "virtue signalling" to the pejorative label "champagne socialist," referring to wealthy people with lifestyles that seem contradictory to their professed socialist political views.

Search Interest

External References