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Stephen Diamond's avatar

Like I argued in other comments: We aren't attracted to the actual presence of good traits. We are attracted to the signals that historically correlated with good traits.

Then one could never discover new ways to signal desirable traits.

We pursue both actual presence and historic correlation. But I'm not sure these two pursuits represent a single psychological process.

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mlouis's avatar

Ah, i see. Perhaps there is an added element of not only having the means to signal but also knowing "what" to signal. It's like fashion. We are signaling not just our "fitness" but our awareness of cultural trends.

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