Behavioral Ecology Vol. 10 No. 2: 209-212
© 1999 International Society for Behavioral Ecology
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The overlooked signaling component of nonsignaling behavior
a Department of Zoology, Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel-Aviv University, Tel-Aviv 69978, Israel b Department of Biology, York University, North York, Ontario M3J 1P3, Canada c Konrad Lorenz Institute for Comparative Ethology, 1a Savoyenstrasse, A-1160 Vienna, Austria
Received 24 March 1998; revised 22 July 1998; accepted 13 August 1998.
The handicap principle (Zahavi,
1975
, 1987;
Zahavi and Zahavi, 1997) is
now widely used to explain the evolution of conspicuous signals such as tail
ornaments, courtship displays, and nestling begging
(Godfray, 1991;
Grafen, 1990a,
b;
Johnston, 1997;
Maynard Smith and Harper,
1995). The essence of the model is that signals must be costly to
be honest. Females have evolved preferences for males with longer tails or
brighter plumage, for example, because only males of high quality can survive
and perform with handicapping ornaments. Despite the general acceptance that
the handicap principle explains extravagant morphological and behavioral
signals, the model's mechanism has not been broadly applied to explain a host
of other behaviors. Here we suggest that the selection on animal behavior to
be performed differently when observed by other animals can lead to
significant quantitative changes in behavior. Although such changes in
Speed of prey fleeing a predator
Signaling components of human behavior: performing slightly better in the presence of others
Sexually selected signaling components of parental care
Extra investment in helping: reconciling kin selection and social prestige
Signaling components may also provide information about need
Testing for signaling components of animal behavior
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
REFERENCES
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