When conversing with skeptical listeners, honest speakers face the challenge of proving the credibility of their message. What can speakers do? We argue that incurring an observable cost—in terms of time, effort, emotion, reputation, etc.—to send a message can be a convincing signal of honesty to the listener. We highlight three qualities of signals that can make them seem costly for different reasons: difficult-to-fake, verifiable, and self-sacrificing. We propose that, while each quality impacts the listener's perceptions of veracity, assessing each quality requires a different set of evaluations by the listener. As a result, assessments of each quality are subject to distinct errors in listener perception. Moreover, perceiving a signaling cost to be deliberate (vs. accidental) further impacts perceived veracity, but does so differently depending on the type of cost. Our costly signal framework can help guide speakers in overcoming listener skepticism.

在与持怀疑态度的听众交谈时，诚实的演讲者面临着证明其信息可信度的挑战。音箱能做什么？我们认为，在时间、精力、情感、声誉等方面产生可观察的成本来发送消息可能是对听众诚实的令人信服的信号。我们强调了信号的三种品质，这些品质可能由于不同的原因使它们看起来代价高昂：难以伪造、可验证和自我牺牲。我们建议，虽然每种质量都会影响听众对真实性的看法，但评估每种质量需要听众进行一组不同的评估。因此，对每种质量的评估都会受到听众感知中明显错误的影响。此外，认为信号成本是故意的（相对于偶然的）会进一步影响感知的准确性，但根据成本的类型，这样做会有所不同。我们昂贵的信号框架可以帮助指导演讲者克服听众的怀疑。