When I was studying under Amotz Zahavi (originator of the handicap principle theory, which is what you’re actually discussing), he used to make the exact same points. In fact, he used to say that “no communication is reliable unless it has a cost”.
Having this outlook on life in the past 5 years made a lot of things seem very different—small questions like why some people don’t use seatbelts and brag about it, or why men on dates leave big tips; but also bigger questions like advertizing, how hierarchical relationships really work, etc.
Also explained a lot about possible origins of (some) altruistic behaviors; Zahavi’s favorite examples were from the research he and his wife conducted, wherein they observed small groups of social birds (forgot the species, sorry) where altrusitic behavior is common. And it turns out, it’s the dominant birds who behave altrusitically, rather than exploit their weaker brethren—but doing so as a show of strength. My own favorite example is when a lower-status male caught a worm and tried feeding it to the alpha male. The latter proceeded to beat him up, take the morsel, and force-feed it back to the weaker male.
When I was studying under Amotz Zahavi (originator of the handicap principle theory, which is what you’re actually discussing), he used to make the exact same points. In fact, he used to say that “no communication is reliable unless it has a cost”.
Having this outlook on life in the past 5 years made a lot of things seem very different—small questions like why some people don’t use seatbelts and brag about it, or why men on dates leave big tips; but also bigger questions like advertizing, how hierarchical relationships really work, etc.
Also explained a lot about possible origins of (some) altruistic behaviors; Zahavi’s favorite examples were from the research he and his wife conducted, wherein they observed small groups of social birds (forgot the species, sorry) where altrusitic behavior is common. And it turns out, it’s the dominant birds who behave altrusitically, rather than exploit their weaker brethren—but doing so as a show of strength. My own favorite example is when a lower-status male caught a worm and tried feeding it to the alpha male. The latter proceeded to beat him up, take the morsel, and force-feed it back to the weaker male.
Best course I ever took :)