Szabolcs Számadó

Szabolcs Számadó

Szabolcs Számadó is co-author, with Dustin J. Penn, of the 2020 Biological Reviews article on the handicap principle.

Who they are

Számadó is a biologist and the second author of The Handicap Principle: how an erroneous hypothesis became a scientific principle (Biological Reviews, 2020, volume 95, issue 1, 267-290).

Key papers

Penn and Számadó (2020), The Handicap Principle: how an erroneous hypothesis became a scientific principle, Biological Reviews, 95(1), 267-290.

Key ideas

The review is a critical examination of the handicap principle. It argues that Zahavi's ideas of waste and signal selection are logically flawed, that Grafen's 1990 models support a trade-off account proposed by Zahavi in 1977 and not the handicap principle, and that the principle spread through misinterpretation of those models. It concludes that theoretical and empirical support for the principle is lacking.

In What is costly signalling? the review sits beside Grafen's 1990 paper, which presents its model as support for Zahavi's main claims. Both papers agree that a signaller's cost depends on its quality.

Sources

  1. Penn, D. J., & Számadó, S. (2020). The Handicap Principle: how an erroneous hypothesis became a scientific principle. Biological Reviews, 95(1), 267-290. doi:10.1111/brv.12563 https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12563
  2. Grafen, A. (1990). Biological signals as handicaps. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 144(4), 517-546. doi:10.1016/S0022-5193(05)80088-8 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-5193(05)80088-8