In animal and human societies, signaling is an important means of conveying information, especially expensive signaling, which indicates competence and survivability and serves as a display of social status. They allow for efficient communication and an edge in survival competitions. The complexity and meaning of these signals can be interpreted differently across cultures, and the ability to interpret them is becoming increasingly important in the modern world.
We are surrounded by signals of all kinds. There’s the modern necessity of wifi, our body’s way of telling us it’s time for lunch, and the playful signals we send to our friends during a boring class. Among these signals, we’re going to focus on the signals sent by members of society. Signals play an important role not only in human societies, but also in animal societies. For animals without language, signals are an important tool for communicating information. For animals, accuracy is vital. The wrong information can lead to starvation while chasing prey that is beyond their capabilities, or to being eaten because they underestimate their opponents. Let’s take a look at some of the strategies that animals use to send and receive accurate information, and we’ll also look at some of the similar signals we see in human society.
As animals have evolved to send and receive the most accurate information, they have started to grade the signals they send to each other. It’s the same way we give countries a credit rating. When a country’s national income grows or its economy develops, credit rating agencies raise its rating, and when it accumulates debt or has a bad economy, its rating drops. In the case of animals, when a capable animal sends a signal with a behavior that other animals cannot easily do, the recipient of the signal will give it a higher rating. These signals are called “costly signals” because they are not readily available to everyone. For example, male peacocks display their colorful bill when courting females. The colorful bill isn’t just about the male’s outgoing beauty, it’s also about his survival skills, as he’s able to carry a heavy bill and still survive. By displaying this symbol of strength, males can gain an advantage in reproductive competition with other males. This is the same situation as in the previous example, where a country with a higher credit rating compared to its sovereign credit rating has an advantage in diplomatic relations with other countries, such as trade.
Costly signaling is an efficient survival tool that helps more capable organisms survive. Sending these signals costs ability and energy, but if the organism is able to overcome the losses, the gains are greater than the losses. Consider the situation of an antelope running away from a lion. There are two main types of antelope running away from a lion There are two types of antelope: those that run at full speed, and those that jump high up next to the lion and show off their jumping ability. Notice the antelope fleeing in the latter way: it’s sending an expensive signal to the lion about its jumping ability. The antelope is risking getting caught running next to the lion, but it gains the benefit of the lion recognizing the antelope’s ability and targeting the antelope that is running away. This is a clear reflection of the natural law of predation.
This signaling is not only observed in animal societies, but also in human societies. Signaling in human societies is more complex and multi-layered. People use a variety of signals to show off their social class or status. For example, an expensive car or luxury watch is not just a consumer good, but a signal of a person’s economic ability and social status. These signals are not just about economic dominance, but also about the social networks and influence of the person.
An example is the sale of high-end insurance products. Insurance salesmen wear multi-million-dollar suits and use expensive pens to give customers confidence in their products. This is an expensive signal in the sense that the salesman loses money on his appearance, but gains in the sense that he gains confidence in the insurance he sells. So what is the causal relationship between costly signaling in human society and the emergence of altruism? This can be perfectly illustrated by the following example. In a primitive tribe, the chief of the tribe gives away his possessions to others to show off his wealth and power. It’s an expensive signal that the average tribesman, who doesn’t have the resources, can’t afford to imitate. While the tribal leader’s actions may seem like a selfless human being looking out for his people, he also has the benefit of emphasizing his power and quelling any potential rebellion. To summarize, costly signaling may appear to be altruistic, but its underlying purpose is to benefit oneself.
We’ve seen the use of costly signaling in animal and human societies through a number of examples, such as peacocks and antelopes. In animal societies, costly signaling is part of an efficient way of communicating between individuals. In human societies, on the other hand, costly signals are used primarily to emphasize one’s value and social position, sometimes cloaking the purpose of profit in the wrapper of altruistic human behavior. With the above in mind, let’s try to understand the costly signals that others send in our social life and find out the real meaning behind them. The costly signal theory can help us understand altruistic behaviors that are difficult to explain evolutionarily, but it has the limitation that it can lead us to suspect purely altruistic behaviors that have no purpose.
In addition, the meaning of signaling can be interpreted differently in different cultural contexts of human societies. For example, Western cultures tend to emphasize individual success and wealth, while Eastern cultures tend to emphasize community and harmony. So the same signal can have different meanings and interpretations depending on the cultural background. As you can see, signals have complex social and cultural meanings that go beyond just conveying information.
The role and importance of signaling has become increasingly important as technology has evolved. With the rise of the internet and social media, we are exposed to far more signals than ever before, and our ability to interpret and utilize them is becoming critical. In an age of information overload, the ability to distinguish accurate and reliable signals is essential not only for individual success, but also for the healthy development of society as a whole. Understanding and analyzing signals is therefore not just an academic interest, but also has real-world implications.
Signals play an important role in both animal and human societies, and it is important to understand and utilize the appropriate signals for each situation and context. The concept of costly signaling allows us to better understand the complexity of information transmission and the various meanings behind it.
