More on Moore’s Law

The handicap principle is a hypothesis originally proposed in 1975 by biologist Amotz Zahavi to explain how evolution may lead to “honest” or reliable signaling between animals who have an obvious motivation to bluff or deceive each other. The handicap principle suggests that reliable signals must be costly to the signaler, costing the signaler in the trait being signaled in a manner that an individual with less of that trait could not afford.
For example, in the case of sexual selection, the theory suggests that animals of greater biological fitness signal this status through handicapping behavior or morphology that effectively lowers this quality. The central idea is that sexually selected traits function like conspicuous consumption, signaling the ability to afford to squander a resource simply by squandering it. Receivers know that the signal indicates quality because inferior quality signalers cannot afford to produce such wastefully extravagant signals.

You can see that there are two conditions for a signal to become honest and hence trustworthy. First, it must be costly for the signaler to produce. Second, it must be more costly to fake than not.

By meeting these conditions, the signal becomes trustworthy, and reliable.

This has many ramifications, which I’ll explore while doing research, and share this you on this blog.

It also explains many seemingly irrational or incomprehensible human behaviors: why we wear ties for business, but bowties at state dinners; why humans are the only species whose hair grows indefinitely; why clowns have round noses and witches long ones.

If you remember one thing, the handicap principle is a way to reliably signal quality.

Edit: I had a discussion about the costliness of handicaps, whether they have to be simply costly or difficult to fake. I have detailed handicap costs in a separate entry.

I’ve been asked about my thesis so many times by my entourage that I’ve decided to make a blog section about it. An added benefit to keeping a blog makes tracking progress easier, and gives the opportunity to practice explaining the somewhat complex nature of this multi-disciplinary thesis.

Lets start by some context.

I am in my final year in ESC Lille, and students are required to turn in a memoire, or thesis. There are no constraints on topics, other than they have to be somewhat relevant to our MBA.

When I worked at Intalio last year, I often asked myself why people would trust a press release when they wouldn’t advertising. I came to realize that the third party element, that added to the checks and balances of the law, was probably the reason. It filtered outlandish claims and acted as an arbiter, or so one would naturally assume. But the issue of trust and credibility remains. Will we ever stop trusting reviews we find on the Internet?

Having read Amot Zahavi’s The Handicap Principle, I was drawn in by the opportunity to re-establish trust in marketing through Honest Signaling. That is, how does nature coordinate mutually distrusting individuals into efficient situations through communication? And how can we adapt these techniques for sales and marketing?

I chose to study this in my thesis; create a toolbox for the advanced marketer to make credible marketing.