Why do believers believe those silly things?

[Alcon]

Cool article.

I really think the idea of identity-signaling is incredibly under-discussed in academia.  It seems like a huge, obvious explanation of why people behave the way they do in religion, politics, etc., and why cultural diaspora (secular American Jews, for instance) oftentimes invest a lot of stake in signals whose significance they actively claim to disbelieve.  Even though I took a lot of politics and some religion and sociology-ish classes, I'm not sure we ever analyzed identity-signaling much.

Incindiery title aside, I don't think there is anything insulting to the religious about this idea.  This is a powerful pull on all of us.  It's not an exclusively tribal behavior.  We signal identities as individuals all the damn time, and many of our closest-held habits and traits are, when distilled to their roots, essentially things we adapted merely to signal fundamental things about ourselves.  Even if you think tribalism and religion are destructive forces, the basic behavior here is a building-block of most social relationships and personal development and has some seriously benevolent sides.

I do think parts of this article are a little unfocused.  For instance, the aside on alternative medicine is a bit meaningless -- sometimes, crisis events can drive people to change their opinions hold onto them tighter, or keep them the same...OK, well, duh.  All in all, though, it's fantastic.  Thanks for sharing it.

(Also, Andrew, that's a great piece of writing!)