Page "Altruism" Paragraph 29

* Costly signaling and the handicap principle.

Since altruism takes away resources from the altruist it can be a " honest signal " of resource availability and the abilities needed to gather resources.

This may signal to others that the altruist is a valuable potential partner.

It may also be a signal of interactive and cooperative intentions since those not interacting further in the future gain nothing from the costly signaling.

It is unclear if costly signaling can indicate a long-term cooperative personality but people have increased trust for those who help.

Costly signaling is pointless if everyone has the same traits, resources, and cooperative intentions but become a potentially more important signal if the population increasingly varies on these characteristics.