[Ads-l] Early Examples of "Virtue Signaling" or "Virtue Signalling"

[Baker, John]

Here is slightly earlier. From Joseph Bulbulia, Spreading Order: Religion, Cooperative Niche Construction, and Risky Coordination Problems, Biology & Philosophy (Jan. 2012) (Gale Academic OneFile):  “Other cultural evolutionary models show that prestige and success biases may combine with imitative learning and virtue-signalling to favour religious cultural transmission (Henrich 2009).”

Although there is a 2012 cover date, the actual publication date is earlier. The article includes the following: “Received: 25 October 2010/Accepted: 27 September 2011/Published online: 25 October 2011.”

The Henrich 2009 source is listed in the bibliography as Henrich J (2009) The evolution of costly displays, cooperation, and religion:credibility enhancing displays and their implications for cultural evolution. Evol Human Behav 30:244-260. So possibly that would have an earlier use.


John Baker


On Jan 18, 2021, at 8:26 AM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:


External Email - Think Before You Click



I am trying to find examples of the term "virtue signaling" or "virtual signalling" earlier than 2012. Can anyone identify any such examples?

Fred Shapiro

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org<http://www.americandialect.org>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org