“What common incentives do predator and prey have? Neither wants to waste resources. **If a prey is nearly certain to escape its predator, they are both better off if the predator doesn’t attack at all**, and they can both save some energy. “But prey can’t simply send predators a signal meaning “You can’t catch me!” All prey would have an incentive to send this signal, even if they were too young, old, tired, hurt, or unprepared to escape the predator. **Predators, then, would have no reason to believe the signal**. For such a signal to function and to last, it should be disproportionally likely to come from prey fit enough to escape. Otherwise, it is not evolutionarily stable, and so it will be selected out and eventually disappear (or never appear in the first place).” --- **Tags** -- [[quotes]], [[incentives]], [[skepticism]], [[trust]], [[wisdom-of-the-crowd]], [[social-proof]], [[false-consensus-effect]], [[groupthink]], [[mimetic-theory]], **Source** -- [[260102102051 - B - Not Born Yesterday]]