Covert identity signals permit the communication of group membership to ingroup members while avoiding potentially costly detection by members of other groups. If individuals are incentivized to detect others' group memberships, however, covert signals may not remain covert for very long. We propose a theoretical extension to the literature on covert signaling in which conventionalized identity signals can become destabilized when learned by outgroup individuals to be replaced by the emergence of new signaling conventions. We formalize this idea with both analytical and agent-based modeling of ingroup and outgroup individuals who learn about signals of group membership. Depending on the risk and associated cost of detection by the outgroup, the model yields three dynamic classes: saturation, where all identity signals become stable conventions and never go extinct; cycling, in which new signals emerge to replace old ones as they are learned by the outgroup; and suppression, in which informative identity signals never emerge. Our analysis has implications for understanding identity signaling, the emergence of conventions, coded speech, and the ebb and flow of fashion cycles. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

中文翻译：

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隐蔽信号的动力学：对身份信号的出现和消亡进行建模。


隐蔽身份信号允许将组成员身份传达给内部组成员，同时避免其他组成员进行可能代价高昂的检测。然而，如果个人被激励去检测其他人的群体成员身份，那么隐蔽的信号可能不会保持很长一段时间的隐蔽。我们提出了对隐蔽信号文献的理论扩展，其中约定俗成的身份信号在被外群个体学习时可能会变得不稳定，并被新的信号约定的出现所取代。我们通过对了解群体成员信号的内群体和外群体个体进行分析和基于代理的建模，将这一想法正式化。根据外群检测的风险和相关成本，该模型产生三个动态类别：饱和，其中所有身份信号都成为稳定的约定，永远不会灭绝;循环，其中新信号出现以取代旧信号，因为它们被外群学习;和压制，其中信息性的身份信号从未出现。我们的分析对理解身份信号、惯例的出现、编码语音以及时尚周期的潮起潮落具有重要意义。（PsycInfo 数据库记录 （c） 2024 APA，保留所有权利）。