countersignal

plural countersignals

1. A signal produced in response to another signal.

present singular third person countersignals · US participle present countersignaling · UK participle present countersignalling · US participle past countersignaled · US past countersignaled · UK participle past countersignalled · UK past countersignalled

1. intransitivehuman sciencesTo send a false or misleading signal.
2. intransitivehuman sciencesTo send a contrasting signal.

   Just as the logic of signaling attracts New Money to luxury, countersignaling directs the Old Money sensibility toward modesty.

   2022, W. David Marx, chapter 5, in Status and Culture, Viking, →ISBN

   1 more example

   But of course, Silicon Valley is a mecca of counter-signaling—witness the superstatus Zuckerbergian hoodie—and it's no surprise to discover that in the land of the billionaire dropout, an Internet entrepreneur like Thiel sees evidence that higher education inhibits innovation.

   2012, New York Magazine's Most Popular

3. transitiveTo signal opposition to (someone or something); distance oneself from; disassociate.