Evolution of Cooperation Via Covert Signaling
Paul E. Smaldino, Thomas J. Flamson, Richard McElreath

TL;DR
This paper introduces a formal mathematical model demonstrating how covert signaling can promote cooperation by enabling individuals to communicate selectively, fostering within-group cooperation while avoiding conflict with outsiders.
Contribution
It provides a novel theoretical framework for understanding the evolution and strategic use of covert signals in human social interactions.
Findings
Covert signaling facilitates within-group cooperation.
It helps individuals coordinate with similar others.
It reduces conflict with dissimilar individuals.
Abstract
Human sociality depends upon the benefits of mutual aid and extensive communication. However mutual aid is made difficult by the problems of coordinating diverse norms and preferences, and communication is harried by substantial ambiguity in meaning. Here we demonstrate that these two facts can work together to allow cooperation to develop, by the strategic use of deliberately ambiguous signals, covert signaling. Covert signaling is the transmission of information that is accurately received by its intended audience but obscured when perceived by others. Such signals may allow coordination and enhanced cooperation while also avoiding the alienation or hostile reactions of individuals with different preferences. Although the empirical literature has identified potential mechanisms of covert signaling, such as encryption in humor, there is to date no formal theory of its dynamics. We…
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Taxonomy
TopicsEvolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation · Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence · Game Theory and Applications
