Virtue signalling: Difference between revisions

{{Lead too short|date=July 2024}}{{short description|Pejorative term}}

One example often cited as virtue signalling is "[[greenwashing]]" (a compound word modelled on "[[Whitewashing (censorship)|whitewash]]"), when a company deceptively claims or suggests that its products or policies are more [[environmentally friendly]] than they actually are.<ref name="Eriksen 2021"/><ref name="Fancy 2021">{{Cite news |url=https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2021/11/04/tariq-fancy-on-the-failure-of-green-investing-and-the-need-for-state-action |title=Tariq Fancy on the failure of green investing and the need for state action |last=Fancy |first=Tariq |newspaper=The Economist |quote=We, along with virtually every other large asset manager, eagerly engaged in a form of financial virtue-signalling that has become de rigueur in the industry, exaggerating how beneficial ESG information had suddenly become to all our investment processes. |date=November 4, 2021 |access-date=November28 26,July 20212024 |url-access=limited}}</ref>

British journalist [[James Bartholomew (journalist)|James Bartholomew]] claims to have originated the pejorative usage of the term "virtue signalling," in a 2015 ''[[The Spectator|Spectator]]'' article.<ref name="Bartholomew 2018">{{cite magazine |last1=Bartholomew |first1=James |title=The awful rise of ‘virtue'virtue signalling’signalling' |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-awful-rise-of-virtue-signalling/ |access-date=28 July 2024 |workmagazine=The Spectator |date=5 July 2018 |url-access=limited}}</ref><ref name="Bartholomew 2015">{{cite magazine |last1=Bartholomew |first1=James |title=I invented ‘virtue'virtue signalling’signalling'. Now it’sit's taking over the world |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/i-invented-virtue-signalling-now-it-s-taking-over-the-world/ |access-date=28 July 2024 |workmagazine=The Spectator |date=8 October 2015 |url-access=limited}}</ref> His 2015 formulation described virtue signalling as empty boasting (directly or otherwise):<ref name="Bartholomew 2018"/>

Psychologists Jillian Jordan and [[David G. Rand|David Rand]] argue that virtue signalling is separable from genuine outrage towards a particular belief, but in most cases, individuals who are virtue signalling are, in fact, simultaneously experiencing genuine outrage.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/30/opinion/sunday/virtue-signaling.html |title=Opinion {{!}} Are You 'Virtue Signaling'? |last1=Jordan |first1=Jillian |date=2019-03-30 |work=The New York Times |access-date=2019-11-25 |last2=Rand |first2=David |issn=0362-4331 |url-access=limited}}</ref> Linguist David Shariatmadari argues in ''The Guardian'' that the very act of accusing someone of virtue signalling is an act of virtue signalling in itself.<ref name="Shariatmadari 2016">{{cite news |last1=Shariatmadari |first1=David |title=Opinion {{!}} 'Virtue-signalling' – the putdown that has passed its sell-by date |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/20/virtue-signalling-putdown-passed-sell-by-date |access-date=28 July 2024 |work=The Guardian |date=20 January 2016}}</ref> ''[[The Conversation (website)|The Conversation]]''{{'}}s Karen Stollznow said that the term is often used as "a sneering insult by those on the right against progressives to dismiss their statements".<ref name="Stollznow 2020"/> [[Zoe Williams]], also writing for ''The Guardian'', suggested the phrase was the "sequel insult to [[champagne socialist]]".<ref name="Williams 2016">{{cite news |last1=Williams |first1=Zoe |title=Opinion {{!}} Forget about Labour’sLabour's heartland – it doesn’tdoesn't exist |url=https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/apr/10/labour-heartland-doesnt-exist-voters |access-date=28 July 2024 |work=The Guardian |date=10 April 2016}}</ref>

* [[Woke]] and [[woke capitalism]]