A Generative Model of Conspicuous Consumption and Status Signaling
2026-03-13 • Multiagent Systems
Multiagent Systems
AI summaryⓘ
The authors studied how things become status symbols through social interactions instead of fixed preferences. They created computer simulations with AI agents that mimic social behavior to show how demand for certain items can turn into status-seeking, causing price spikes like with luxury goods. They also found that influential agents can shape subcultures and similar effects happen with non-money signals. This work links individual thinking to bigger social and economic trends, helping explain how culture changes over time.
Status signalingCostly Signaling TheoryTheory of AppropriatenessLarge Language ModelsSocial influenceVeblen effectsPrice elasticitySubculturesAgent-based simulationCultural conventions
Authors
Logan Cross, Jordi Grau-Moya, William A. Cunningham, Alexander Sasha Vezhnevets, Joel Z. Leibo
Abstract
Status signaling drives human behavior and the allocation of scarce resources such as mating opportunities, yet the generative mechanisms governing how specific goods, signals, or behaviors acquire prestige remain a puzzle. Classical frameworks, such as Costly Signaling Theory, treat preferences as fixed and struggle to explain how semiotic meaning changes based on context or drifts dynamically over time, occasionally reaching tipping points. In this work, we propose a computational theory of status grounded in the theory of appropriateness, positing that status symbols emerge endogenously through a feedback loop of social observation and predictive pattern completion. We validate this theory using simulations of groups of Large Language Model (LLM)-based agents in the Concordia framework. By experimentally manipulating social visibility within naturalistic agent daily routines, we demonstrate that social interactions transform functional demand into status-seeking behavior. We observe the emergence of price run-ups and positive price elasticity (Veblen effects) for both real-world luxury items and procedurally generated synthetic goods, ruling out pretraining bias as the sole driver. Furthermore, we demonstrate that "influencer" agents can drive the endogenous formation of distinct subcultures through targeted sanctioning, and find that similar social influence effects generalize to non-monetary signaling behaviors. This work provides a generative bridge between micro-level cognition and macro-level economic and sociological phenomena, offering a new methodology for forecasting how cultural conventions emerge from interaction.