This seems only true if you expect a decent share of our community members to be dishonest or not disvalue giving dishonest signals? Being vegetarian just to appear to care about animals, and not because you care about them nor because you’re trying to cooperate with those who do, seems like it would be costly to people’s consciences.
There are also indirect expected benefits to vegetarianism for nonhuman animals or other future moral patients with similarly limited agency: increasing the salience of their interests day-to-day and potentially reducing cognitive dissonance. So, it’s not just a signal that someone already cares about animals, it actually also makes them care more.
This seems only true if you expect a decent share of our community members to be dishonest or not disvalue giving dishonest signals? Being vegetarian just to appear to care about animals, and not because you care about them nor because you’re trying to cooperate with those who do, seems like it would be costly to people’s consciences.
There are also indirect expected benefits to vegetarianism for nonhuman animals or other future moral patients with similarly limited agency: increasing the salience of their interests day-to-day and potentially reducing cognitive dissonance. So, it’s not just a signal that someone already cares about animals, it actually also makes them care more.