Dishonest Signaling

Dishonest signaling is strategic misrepresentation in contexts where senders and receivers have divergent interests and the signal's cost structure fails to prevent deception. Unlike honest signaling, where cost differential makes lying unprofitable, dishonest signaling exploits gaps in receiver detection, mimics honest signals at reduced cost, or operates in environments where signal jamming obscures the true cost differential. The evolutionary and institutional persistence of dishonest signaling reveals that signaling equilibria are temporary: whenever honesty becomes predictable, selection favors the mutant strategy of deception, initiating a co-evolutionary arms race between signalers and detectors.