Motivation

The introduction of ‘signalling theory’ really grabbed my attention in this week’s readings:

The assumption behind this theory is that individuals with better traits have lower marginal signalling costs, that is, lower costs of altruistic acts. Thus, those with better traits are more likely to signal, which allows the inference that those who signal have better traits.

This struck me as a sort of evolutionary Calvinism. One of the main tenets of Calvinism, from my limited understanding, is that salvation was completely determined by God. No human action could affect the likelihood of one being saved, but rather it was God’s grace that determined all action. People ascribing to this doctrine never the less behaved in a properly worshipful manner — that is, they acted as though they were saved. One speculates that this has a fair bit to do with community standing and also a little to do with wishful thinking.

Similarly here, even if one’s altruistic actions cannot directly maximize one’s individual utility, people may never the less behave altruistically in order to send a message that they are ‘more fit’ (so to speak) than they actually are. This basic idea bears out fairly well in the phenomenon of conspicuous consumption, but the loose link in the chain is the assumption that altruism and fitness are conceptually associated so that demonstrating one signals the other.

Thoughts on this?