So what happens when I go out and buy a sports car, but don't tell anybody about it and generally try to draw as little attention to it as possible? Or put another way, what would the explanation be if I buy some high status item, but then actively work to downplay it?
It's called countersignaling. Basically, you want to be seen as a wealthy person, so you buy the sports car. But if you were truly wealthy, you wouldn't brag about having a sports car because you wouldn't even consider it exceptional.
What if you hang around in a culture in which conspicuous consumption is generally frowned upon? You would have apparently conflicting goals; a presumably "hard-wired" desire for the car, yet a more learned knowledge that it won't actually help you implement the intentions of your genes.
In short, I'm proposing that it could be one of those examples of an out-of-evolutionary-context kind of behavior.
f I buy some high status item, but then actively work to downplay it?
Is that not a completely hypothetical scenario? You might buy a highly functional item and downplay it (e.g. I wore my expensive dive computer as a watch for a while because my regular watch was off for repair, but I didn't intend it as a means to start conversations with people about my last dive trip) but the only purpose of a high status item is to telegraph high status - there's literally no other reason for it (to continue in the same vein, no real divers wear Rolexes!).
Reminds me of a point made in a similar article: why are people so surprised high profile figures like Bill Clinton risk so much to have affairs, when from an evolutionary standpoint they got there in order to have affairs.
As for downplaying a sports car, it's not very likely you'll do that. Possible, of course, but just not very likely.
I've had a brand new high-end German car for almost a year and some of my closest friends don't even know I own it (I live in a large city where driving isn't that common).
I like to keep a low profile for the most part. I don't want to attract the wrong kind of attention, look like a "young hot-shot kid" at work, etc. There's nothing wrong with women appreciating your success and ambition, but nobody wants to be a meal ticket.
I think women like confidence more than money, but having both never hurts. I once joked to a friend that my luck hadn't improved significantly despite earning much more; he quipped "you were still a guy who was going to make a lot of money back then, you just didn't have it yet."
The most interesting signaling behavior to me is being a hipster. Not having to work is really showing familial wealth and status. Most people don't come from a background where they can spend all day finding cool music and weird clothes rather than working a 9-5.
