This is a Lexicon entry: the mechanism, when it shows up, and the countermeasure. The full correction, with real-world cases and the audit prompt, hasn't been written yet.
Definition
Fashionable opinions adopted by elite classes to signal status, often with the consequences being paid by lower classes.
When it shows up
Elite discourse about family structure, drug policy, policing, education. Positions that would be costly if generally adopted but cost their holders nothing.
Failure mode
Certain beliefs function as status signals affordable only to people whose circumstances immunize them from the belief's consequences. The belief costs them nothing; they don't experience the downsides; they can hold the belief costlessly as a signal.
Countermeasure
Ask: 'Who bears the cost if this belief becomes policy?' If the answer is people who don't hold the belief, the believer is signalling, not reasoning. Apply extra scrutiny to beliefs costly to others, free to the believer.
Related traps
Also connected in the map4 more, locked
Credit & first seen
CoinedCoined by author and researcher Rob Henderson.
Also revealed
Entry #99 of 631 in The Lexicon · see the full Lexicon