Costly Signaling

Costly signaling is the broader class of strategic communication in which signal credibility is maintained by differential production cost — of which honest signaling is the special case where the cost structure produces truth-telling. Not all costly signals are honest: some are conspicuous displays designed to intimidate, attract, or exclude without conveying verifiable information. The formal analysis of costly signaling unites animal communication, economic credentialing, and ritual behavior under a single strategic logic: credibility requires expense, and expense selects for sincerity only when the cost function is aligned with the hidden variable being signaled.