Social Signalling is ruling our actions

In the book "The Elephant in the Brain" Robin Hanson & Kevin Simler state that:

1. Most of our everyday actions can be traced back to some form of signalling or status seeking
2. Our brains deliberately hide this fact from us and others (self deception)

The authors propose that “well over 90%” of human behavior can be explained by signaling: the stuff we buy or even the charities we donate to are done mainly to show off. But we do wrap this instinct in all sorts of rationalisations.