Difficult to overstate the role of signaling as a force in human thinking, indeed, few random examples: 1. Expensive clothes, rings, cars, houses: Signalling 'I've got a lot of spare resources, it's great to know me/don't mess with me/I won't rob you/I'm interesting/...' 2. Clothes of particular type -> signals your politica/religious/... views/lifestyle 3. Talking about interesting news/persons -> signals you can be a valid connection to have as you have links 4. In basic material economics/markets: All sorts of ways to signal your product is good (often economists refer to e.g.: insurance, public reviewing mechanism, publicity) 5. LW-er liking to get lots of upvotes to signal his intellect or simply for his post to be a priori not entirely unfounded 6. Us dumbly washing or ironing clothes or buying new clothes while stained-but-non-smelly or unironed or worn clothes would be functionally just as valuable - well if a major functionality would not exactly be, to signal wealth, care, status.. 7. Me teaching & consulting in a suit because the university uses an age old signalling tool to show: we care about our clients 8. Doc having his white suit to spread an air of professional doctor-hood to the patient he tricks into not questioning his suggestions and actions 9. Genetically: many sexually attractive traits have some origin in signaling good quality genes: directly functional body (say strong muscles) and/or 'proving spare resources to waste on useless signals' such as most egregiously for the Peacocks/Birds of paradise <- I think humans have the latter capacity too, though I might be wrong/no version comes to mind right now 10. Intellect etc.! There's lots of theory that much of our deeper thinking abilities were much less required for basic material survival (hunting etc.), than for social purposes: impress with our stories etc.; signal that what we want is good and not only self-serving. (ok, the latter maybe that is partly not pure 'signali

Does the preference forming process count as thinking?  If so, then I suspect that my desire to communicate that I am deep/unique/interesting to my peers is a major force in my preference for fringe and unpopular musical artists over Beyonce/Justin Bieber/Taylor Swift/etc.  It's not the only factor, but it is a significant one AFAICT. And I've also noticed that if I'm in a social context and I'm considering whether or not to use a narcotic (eg, alcohol), then I'm extremely concerned about what the other people around me will think about me abstaining (eg, I may want to avoid communicating that I disapprove of narcotic use or that I'm not fun).  In this case I'm just straight forwardly thinking about whether or not to take some action. Are these examples of the sort of thing you are interested in? Or maybe I am misunderstanding what is meant by the terms "thinking" and "signalling".