The Peacock Fallacy: Art as a Veblenian Signal

The fact that world-over people seem inexplicably motivated to allocate time and effort to apparently useless cultural practices, like the arts, has led several evolutionary scholars to suggest that these might be costly Zahavian signals correlated with genetic fitness, such as the infamous peacock’...

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Autor principal:	Larissa Mendoza Straffon
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:	art sexual selection mate choice costly signaling the handicap principle visual art Psychology BF1-990
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/a3d568125b4a44839e9b0e822b01417c
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:a3d568125b4a44839e9b0e822b01417c2021-11-22T05:56:33ZThe Peacock Fallacy: Art as a Veblenian Signal1664-107810.3389/fpsyg.2021.767409https://doaj.org/article/a3d568125b4a44839e9b0e822b01417c2021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.767409/fullhttps://doaj.org/toc/1664-1078The fact that world-over people seem inexplicably motivated to allocate time and effort to apparently useless cultural practices, like the arts, has led several evolutionary scholars to suggest that these might be costly Zahavian signals correlated with genetic fitness, such as the infamous peacock’s tail. In this paper, I review the fundamental arguments of the hypothesis that art evolved and serves as a costly Zahavian signal. First, I look into the hypothesis that humans exert mate choice for indirect benefits and argue that the data supports mate choice for direct benefits instead. Second, I argue that art practice may well be a costly signal, however not necessarily related to good genes. Third, I suggest that Thorstein Veblen’s original concept of conspicuous signals as social tools to obtain and convey prestige provides a better account than the Zahavian model for the evolution and function of art in society. As a Veblenian signal, art could still have many of the effects suggested for visual art as a Zahavian signal, except not for the indirect benefits of optimal offspring, but for the direct benefits of acquiring and conveying social status.Larissa Mendoza StraffonLarissa Mendoza StraffonLarissa Mendoza StraffonFrontiers Media S.A.articleartsexual selectionmate choicecostly signalingthe handicap principlevisual artPsychologyBF1-990ENFrontiers in Psychology, Vol 12 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	art sexual selection mate choice costly signaling the handicap principle visual art Psychology BF1-990
spellingShingle	art sexual selection mate choice costly signaling the handicap principle visual art Psychology BF1-990 Larissa Mendoza Straffon Larissa Mendoza Straffon Larissa Mendoza Straffon The Peacock Fallacy: Art as a Veblenian Signal
description	The fact that world-over people seem inexplicably motivated to allocate time and effort to apparently useless cultural practices, like the arts, has led several evolutionary scholars to suggest that these might be costly Zahavian signals correlated with genetic fitness, such as the infamous peacock’s tail. In this paper, I review the fundamental arguments of the hypothesis that art evolved and serves as a costly Zahavian signal. First, I look into the hypothesis that humans exert mate choice for indirect benefits and argue that the data supports mate choice for direct benefits instead. Second, I argue that art practice may well be a costly signal, however not necessarily related to good genes. Third, I suggest that Thorstein Veblen’s original concept of conspicuous signals as social tools to obtain and convey prestige provides a better account than the Zahavian model for the evolution and function of art in society. As a Veblenian signal, art could still have many of the effects suggested for visual art as a Zahavian signal, except not for the indirect benefits of optimal offspring, but for the direct benefits of acquiring and conveying social status.
format	article
author	Larissa Mendoza Straffon Larissa Mendoza Straffon Larissa Mendoza Straffon
author_facet	Larissa Mendoza Straffon Larissa Mendoza Straffon Larissa Mendoza Straffon
author_sort	Larissa Mendoza Straffon
title	The Peacock Fallacy: Art as a Veblenian Signal
title_short	The Peacock Fallacy: Art as a Veblenian Signal
title_full	The Peacock Fallacy: Art as a Veblenian Signal
title_fullStr	The Peacock Fallacy: Art as a Veblenian Signal
title_full_unstemmed	The Peacock Fallacy: Art as a Veblenian Signal
title_sort	peacock fallacy: art as a veblenian signal
publisher	Frontiers Media S.A.
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/a3d568125b4a44839e9b0e822b01417c
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The Peacock Fallacy: Art as a Veblenian Signal

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