the.com/signaling
doing the useful thing loudly enough that everyone notices you're the kind of person who does it.
means taking a costly or visible action mainly to communicate a hidden trait, like intelligence, loyalty, or wealth, that's hard to prove directly.
from formalized by economist Michael Spence in 1973, who showed why job seekers get expensive degrees even when the coursework teaches nothing useful for the job itself, the diploma just proves you could survive it.
peacock tailsbiology's original costly, wasteful signal of fitness
nobel prizespence won economics nobel in 2001 for this
must be costlycheap signals get faked, that's the whole point
virtue signalingsame theory, borrowed for moral one-upmanship online