“I am trying to politely tell you that you have a lot to learn about signaling.”
That’s why I’m here :)
I think you bring up an interesting point here. I agreed with pwno that, once everyone is aware of a signal, it’s no longer credible, especially if it’s cheap. But I think you’re right as well that for the signals you mentioned, it doesn’t matter who knows that it’s a signal or how long it’s been around.
The distinction, I think, is what one is trying to signal. Signals of conformity to a group or cooperativeness to an ally might be affected differently by these factors than signals of higher status. In fact, the former may gain in credibility as they get older, in a “this is what our group has always done” kind of way, whereas in the latter, the signal may get weaker as time goes on. I’m not sure that this is what happens, but there’s no reason to think that signals for different things are affected equally by changing factors.
“I am trying to politely tell you that you have a lot to learn about signaling.” That’s why I’m here :)
I think you bring up an interesting point here. I agreed with pwno that, once everyone is aware of a signal, it’s no longer credible, especially if it’s cheap. But I think you’re right as well that for the signals you mentioned, it doesn’t matter who knows that it’s a signal or how long it’s been around.
The distinction, I think, is what one is trying to signal. Signals of conformity to a group or cooperativeness to an ally might be affected differently by these factors than signals of higher status. In fact, the former may gain in credibility as they get older, in a “this is what our group has always done” kind of way, whereas in the latter, the signal may get weaker as time goes on. I’m not sure that this is what happens, but there’s no reason to think that signals for different things are affected equally by changing factors.