Practice question · Multiple choice
Costly-signalling theory says a signal must be expensive to be believed. Why does cheapness undermine honesty?
Hints
- Ask what stops a weak male from displaying as if he were strong.
- The cost must fall unequally.
Show the answer
C. Because a signal anyone could produce carries no information
Why
Differential cost is what makes the signal informative. A peacock's tail is credible because a sick bird cannot afford one, not because it is conspicuous.
Practise Communication and Ritualization
The app has 7 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. Psychology I is free to start.
More questions on Communication and Ritualization
- Order the evolutionary steps of ritualization, by which an ordinary behavior becomes a signal.
- Many threat displays evolved from ordinary movements, a bird's attack posture from the intention movement of…
- The handicap principle holds that a signal is honest BECAUSE it is expensive. Why does cost enforce honesty,…
- Under the handicap principle, the very costliness of a peacock's tail is what makes it a trustworthy signal…