[dash2]

> That term lacks all credibility

I disagree. There's coherent economic theory about how costly actions can be used to provide credible signals. It's been used in a wide variety of disciplines including biology (peacock's tails). No mind-reading is needed. I understand that sometimes it is used by right-wingers to attack left-wing positions. My comment wasn't driven by reactionary politics, and my point was to encourage people to think about what actually does well for the group - which, at the risk of repeating myself, is about minimizing the cost for a given level of benefit.

[mmooss]

If you do understand theory and science, you know that theory doesn't apply to individuals, that it's evidence of nothing.

To describe something in the real world, you need objective evidence, in this case of someone's motive - or there's always mind-reading.

[dash2]

There’s lots of evidence for costly signalling across multiple domains! For this specific case, I can’t be certain about any individual’s motivation, of course - I simply raised the possibility and pointed out why it would be a bad idea to think that way.