#15 - Signaling
What is signaling, and how does it work in the animal kingdom?
Signaling, among humans, is the act of professing or indicating a value that you hold. But such behavior is not unique to humans, and we can learn a lot about our version from how it is done in the animal kingdom.
While there is a whole field of signaling theory that you can read all about, the easiest example to get started is a gazelle’s act of stotting. Stotting involves jumping high up in the air in the presence of a predator.
At first blush this would make no sense! Why give away your location and use up energy at the same time? For such a behavior to still be around, it must have some evolutionary advantage.
While there is still debate on the topic, many regard this as a case of ‘honest signaling.’ The gazelle is demonstrating (both to the predator and potential mates) that it is fit and could still run away if necessary. “Don’t bother coming after me, bro!” could be a modern translation of the act. To personify the predator as well, he might be thinking “it’s gonna be tough to catch that guy, let’s see what else we’ve got.”
This is an honest signal because there is no deception: the gazelle is actually giving up his advantage of being hidden (a key advantage), and the demonstration of his fitness is an accurate portrayal of its fitness.
The cousin of an honest signal is a dishonest signal, which would be cases where an animal bluffs the honest signal. Especially in cases where the honest signal is not costly to give, bluffing becomes more enticing. So while a gazelle’s jump is quite risky (costly) and may not encourage bluffing, lower cost signals will be more likely to be bluffed.
These are somewhat rare in the animal kingdom, with a Fiddler crab’s lightweight regrown claw being one quoted example. It appears real, but is much weaker than it’s original, and the threat from it is largely illusory. But in humans, dishonest signals have become the name of the game in a world dominated by social media.
But we’ll have to save signaling in the human world for next time. Stay tuned!