> nor are we driven by some need to display this disinterest as some kind of marker of class rank or intellectual superiority.

Not to disagree with you, but I was under the impression that most research on social signaling has shown that it is not a conscious phenomenon.

You don't do X because you think it will signal Y. You just do X, whether because of unconscious social signals you have received or because the information that X might signal Y is contained in the genome rather than in the brain.

Can anyone clarify?