Virtue signalling

Pejorative term

Virtue signalling is the act of expressing opinions or stances that align with popular moral values, often through social media, with the intent of demonstrating one's good character. The term virtue signalling is frequently used pejoratively to suggest that the person is more concerned with appearing virtuous than with actually supporting the cause or belief in question.[1]: 39–40 [2][3] An accusation of virtue signalling can be applied to both individuals and companies.

Critics argue that virtue signalling is often meant to gain social approval without taking meaningful action, such as in greenwashing, where companies exaggerate their environmental commitments. On social media, large movements such as Blackout Tuesday were accused of lacking substance, and celebrities or public figures are frequently charged with virtue signalling when their actions seem disconnected from their public stances. However, some argue that these expressions of outrage or moral alignment may reflect genuine concern, and that accusing others of virtue signalling can itself be a form of signalling. This inverse concept has been described as vice signalling and refers to the public promotion of negative or controversial views to appear tough, pragmatic, or rebellious, often for political or social capital.

## Definition and usage

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According to the Cambridge Dictionary, virtue signalling is "an attempt to show other people that you are a good person, for example by expressing opinions that will be acceptable to them, especially on social media... indicating that one has virtue merely by expressing disgust or favour for certain political ideas or cultural happenings".[4] The expression is often used to imply by the user that the virtue being signalled is exaggerated or insincere.[5]

The concept of virtue signalling is most often used by those on the political right to denigrate the behaviour of those on the political left.[1][2] It is similar to the idea of grandstanding.[1][6] One practice sometimes cited as an example of virtue signalling is greenwashing, when a company deceptively claims or suggests that its products or policies are more environmentally friendly than they actually are.[5][7] Some sustainability advocates have suggested ecological virtue signalling by corporations is not necessarily negative, as long as it is accompanied by taking responsibility for past environmental harms.[8] Merriam-Webster editor Emily Brewster has likened virtue signalling to the term humblebragging.[9]

## History

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David Shariatmadari writes in The Guardian that the term has been used since at least 2004,[10] appearing for example in religious academic works in 2010[11] and 2012.[12] Nassim Nicholas Taleb cites Matthew 6:1–4 as an example of "virtue signalling" being condemned as a vice in antiquity ("Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven").[13]

British journalist James Bartholomew claims to have originated the pejorative usage of the term "virtue signalling" in 2015.[9] He wrote in The Spectator that:

> No one actually has to do anything. Virtue comes from mere words or even from silently held beliefs. There was a time in the distant past when people thought you could only be virtuous by doing things...[that] involve effort and self-sacrifice.[14]

## Examples

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### Social media

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Angela Nagle, in her book Kill All Normies, described Internet reactions to the Kony 2012 viral video as "what we might now call 'virtue signaling'", and that "the usual cycles of public displays of outrage online began as expected with inevitable competitive virtue signaling" in the aftermath of the killing of Harambe.[15] B. D. McClay wrote in The Hedgehog Review that signalling particularly flourished in online communities. It was unavoidable in digital interactions because they lacked the qualities of offline life, such as spontaneity. When one filled out a list of one's favourite books for Facebook, one was usually aware of what that list said about oneself.[16]

Blackout Tuesday, a collective action that was ostensibly intended to combat racism and police brutality that was carried out on June 2, 2020, mainly by businesses and celebrities through social media in response to the killings of several black people by police officers, was criticized as a form of virtue signalling for the initiative's "lack of clarity and direction".[17][18]

In 2024, the pro-Palestinian political slogan "All Eyes on Rafah" went viral after an AI generated image of the phrase was shared on social media. Some users criticized the campaign as a form of virtue signalling and compared it to Blackout Tuesday, and believed that it would be more important for people to post actual pictures of Rafah.[19][20]

### Marketing

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In addition to individuals, companies have also been accused of virtue signalling in marketing, public relations, and brand communication.[21][22]

### Film industry

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See also: Oscar bait and message picture

Actors and other celebrities may be accused of virtue-signalling if their actions are seen to contradict their expressed views.[23]

## Reception

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Psychologists Jillian Jordan and 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.[24] 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.[10] Zoe Williams, also writing for The Guardian, suggested the phrase was the "sequel insult to champagne socialist".[25]

## Vice signalling

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Financial Times editor Robert Shrimsley suggested the term vice signalling as a counterpoint to virtue signalling:[23]

> A vice-signaller boasts about sneaking meat into a vegetarian meal. He will rush on to social media to denounce as a 'snowflake' any woman who objects to receiving rape threats, or any minority unhappy at a racist joke...Vice-signallers have understood that there is money to be made in the outrage economy by playing the villain. Perhaps, secretly, they buy their clothes at the zero-waste shop and help out at the local food bank, but cannot be caught doing so lest their image is destroyed.

Stephen Bush, also in the Financial Times, describes vice signalling as "ostentatious displays of authoritarianism designed to reassure voters that you are “tough” on crime or immigration", and that it "risks sending what is, in a democracy, the most dangerous signal of all: that politicians do not really care about their electorate’s concerns, other than as a device to win and to hold on to their own power". In particular, Bush cited Donald Trump's Mexican border wall pledge and Boris Johnson's Rwanda asylum plan.[26]

Examples of vice signalling have been described as "show[ing] you are tough, hard-headed, a dealer in uncomfortable truths, and, above all, that you live in 'the real world'", in a way that goes beyond what actual pragmatism requires,[27] or to "a public display of immorality, intended to create a community based on cruelty and disregard for others, which is proud of it at the same time".[28]

## See also

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* Psychology portal
* Society portal

* Conspicuous consumption - effort to signal wealth rather than virtue
* Do-gooder derogation
* Luxury belief
* Performative activism
* Purity test
* Slacktivism
* Social justice warrior
* Status dog
* Woke

## References

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1. ^ a b c Tosi, Justin; Warmke, Brandon (2020). Grandstanding: The Use and Abuse of Moral Talk. Oxford University Press. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-19-090015-1.
2. ^ a b Stollznow, Karen (28 September 2020). "'Virtue signalling', a slur meant to imply moral grandstanding that might not be all bad". The Conversation. Retrieved 4 September 2021.
3. ^ Levy, Neil (2020). "Virtue signalling is virtuous". Synthese. 198 (10): 9545–9562\. doi:10.1007/s11229-020-02653-9. ISSN 1573-0964. S2CID 215793854.
4. ^ "Virtue signalling". Cambridge Dictionary. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 26 November 2021. "an attempt to show other people that you are a good person, for example by expressing opinions that will be acceptable to them, especially on social media"
5. ^ a b Eriksen, Olivia (2 August 2021). "Virtue Signaling: What Is It and Why Is It So Dangerous?". RealClearEnergy. Retrieved 26 November 2021. "Virtue signaling is defined at the act of publicly expressing opinions in order to demonstrate that you are a good person. However, this has become muddied with placing more importance on the appearance of moral correctness, than the correctness itself."
6. ^ Hill, Jesse; Fanciullo, James (2023). "What's Wrong with Virtue Signaling?" (PDF). Synthese. 201 (4). doi:10.1007/s11229-023-04131-4. ISSN 1573-0964. article number 117.
7. ^ Fancy, Tariq (4 November 2021). "Tariq Fancy on the failure of green investing and the need for state action". The Economist. Retrieved 28 July 2024. "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."
8. ^ Sandhu, Sukhbir (30 October 2024). "Individual action on climate was tarred as greenwashing or virtue signalling. But it still has a place". The Conversation. Retrieved 22 January 2025.
9. ^ a b Peters, Mark (24 December 2015). "Virtue signaling and other inane platitudes". The Boston Globe. Retrieved 28 July 2024.
10. ^ a b Shariatmadari, David (20 January 2016). "Opinion | 'Virtue-signalling' – the putdown that has passed its sell-by date". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 July 2024.
11. ^ Pyysiäinen, Ilkka (2010). Religion, Economy, and Cooperation. De Gruyter. p. 36\. ISBN 978-3-11-024632-2.
12. ^ Bulbulia, Joseph (2012). "Spreading order: religion, cooperative niche construction, and risky coordination problems". Biology & Philosophy. 27 (1): 1–27\. doi:10.1007/s10539-011-9295-x. PMC 3223343. PMID 22207773. "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)"
13. ^ Taleb, Nassim Nicholas (2019). Skin in the Game: Hidden Asymmetries in Daily Life. London: Penguin Books. pp. 185–187\. ISBN 978-0-14-198265-6.
14. ^ Bartholomew, James (5 July 2018). "The awful rise of 'virtue signalling'". The Spectator. Retrieved 28 July 2024.
15. ^ Nagle, Angela (2017). Kill All Normies. John Hunt Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78535-544-8. LCCN 2017934035.[page needed]
16. ^ McClay, B. D. (Summer 2018). "Virtue Signaling". The Hedgehog Review. 20 (2): 141–144\. ISSN 2324-867X.
17. ^ Framke, Caroline (2 June 2020). "Why Posting Black Boxes for #BlackoutTuesday, or Hashtags Without Action, Is Useless (Column)". "this rush to virtue-signal support without providing substantive aid is an all too familiar instinct on social media, where an issue can become a trend that people feel the need to address in some way, whether or not it makes sense or does any actual good."
18. ^ Ho, Shannon (13 June 2020). "A social media 'blackout' enthralled Instagram. But did it do anything?". NBC. Retrieved 26 November 2021. "The word "slacktivism" traces to 1995 as a portmanteau of "slacker" and "activism". As elements of life have moved online in the 25 years since, slacktivism has come to represent halfhearted social media-based activity, along with other terms like "virtue signaling" and "performative allyship"."
19. ^ Prinsley, Jane (29 May 2024). "What is 'All Eyes on Rafah' and what does it mean?". The Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 15 June 2025.
20. ^ "Why has the viral 'All Eyes on Rafah' graphic sparked so much anger?". Middle East Eye. Retrieved 15 June 2025.
21. ^ Mondalek, Alexandra (2 June 2020). "As Brands Rush to Speak Out, Many Statements Ring Hollow". Retrieved 28 July 2024.
22. ^ Wallace, Elaine; Buil, Isabel; de Chernatony, Leslie (2020). "'Consuming Good' on Social Media: What Can Conspicuous Virtue Signalling on Facebook Tell Us About Prosocial and Unethical Intentions?" (PDF). Journal of Business Ethics. 162 (3): 577–592\. doi:10.1007/s10551-018-3999-7. ISSN 1573-0697.
23. ^ a b Shrimsley, Robert (10 May 2019). "Once you're accused of virtue-signalling, you can't do anything right". Financial Times. Archived from the original on 11 May 2019. Retrieved 25 December 2021. "Virtue-signalling, for those who have never felt drawn to the term, is the apparently modern crime of trying to be seen doing the right thing...One regular whipping girl for this abuse is the actor Emma Thompson, who recently rocked up at the Extinction Rebellion protests to give her support, only to be caught days later sipping champagne while flying first class. How her opponents howled."
24. ^ Jordan, Jillian; Rand, David (30 March 2019). "Opinion | Are You 'Virtue Signaling'?". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
25. ^ Williams, Zoe (10 April 2016). "Opinion | Forget about Labour's heartland – it doesn't exist". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 July 2024.
26. ^ Bush, Stephen (22 June 2022). "How 'vice-signalling' swallowed electoral politics". Financial Times. Retrieved 28 July 2024. "Although the term's precise origins are contested, it was popularised in a Spectator column by the writer James Bartholomew, who defined the act as 'indicating you are kind, decent and virtuous' while being anything but."
27. ^ Cohen, Nick (25 May 2018). "The Tories are the masters of 'vice signalling'". The Spectator. Archived from the original on 2 October 2021. Retrieved 28 July 2024.
28. ^ Berlatsky, Noah (7 May 2020). "As Bethany Mandel's 'grandma killer' tweet proves, vice-signaling is the right's newest and most toxic trend". The Independent. Archived from the original on 8 May 2020. Retrieved 28 July 2024.

## Further reading

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* Hamilton, Andrew (19 March 2019). "'Virtue signalling' and other slimy words" (PDF). Eureka Street. Vol. 29, no. 5\. pp. 12–14\. ISSN 1036-1758.
* Orlitzky, Marc (2018). "Virtue Signaling: Oversocialized 'Integrity' in a Politically Correct World". In Orlitzky, Marc; Monga, Manjit (eds.). Integrity in Business and Management: Cases and Theory. Routledge Studies in Business Ethics. New York: Routledge. pp. 172–182\. ISBN 978-1-138-80877-5. LCCN 2017011721.
* Taiwo, Olufemi (2022). "Vice Signaling" (PDF). Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy. 22 (3): 295–316\. doi:10.26556/jesp.v22i3.1192. ISSN 1559-3061.

## External links

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* The dictionary definition of virtue signalling at Wiktionary