Signaling is, generally speaking, a means of displaying social status and desirability as a mate, yes?
Ergo, anything that directly fulfills a basic physical imperative other than the reproductive drive is a likely candidate for non-signaling. Hunger, exhaustion, the fight or flight reaction, &c. Of course, all of these can be wrapped in contexts indicating social status, but the actions themselves are likely mostly neutral. e.g., people may brag about their sleep habits for status, but when they do go to bed it’s probably because they’re tired, not because they’re thinking about how it will impress others. It’s the talking about sleeping that is doing the signaling here.
Signaling is, generally speaking, a means of displaying social status and desirability as a mate, yes?
If you can believe it, this claim isn’t strong enough:
you wear a suit to a job interview (otherwise you might be hard to work with)
your bank spends a lot of money on impressive buildings (otherwise you wouldn’t feel safe giving them your money)
the government. The last three American presidents have been drug users who supported the War On Drugs. Otherwise, people would think they were soft on crime.
Signaling is, generally speaking, a means of displaying social status and desirability as a mate, yes?
Ergo, anything that directly fulfills a basic physical imperative other than the reproductive drive is a likely candidate for non-signaling. Hunger, exhaustion, the fight or flight reaction, &c. Of course, all of these can be wrapped in contexts indicating social status, but the actions themselves are likely mostly neutral. e.g., people may brag about their sleep habits for status, but when they do go to bed it’s probably because they’re tired, not because they’re thinking about how it will impress others. It’s the talking about sleeping that is doing the signaling here.
If you can believe it, this claim isn’t strong enough:
you wear a suit to a job interview (otherwise you might be hard to work with)
your bank spends a lot of money on impressive buildings (otherwise you wouldn’t feel safe giving them your money)
the government. The last three American presidents have been drug users who supported the War On Drugs. Otherwise, people would think they were soft on crime.
Agreed.