Figure 2
Costly signaling. (a) to (e) Time average density of signals produced in the population 〈ρσ〉t, as a function of their payoff \({\langle {w}_{\sigma }^{a}\rangle }_{t}\) averaged over the same time period for five different game structures. Insets show 〈ρσ〉t, as a function of normalized cost \(\bar{c}\) (cost divided by mean payoff). When signal densities are plotted against apparent cost, a puzzling picture emerges: not only costly signals are produced, but also signals show little or no dependence on their cost. However, by plotting the signal density against their payoff, a strong pattern emerges: signal densities are distributed as an increasing function of their payoff.
