WITHDRAWN

Signal theory has long emphasized cost as the guarantor of honesty. Zahavi’s Handicap Principle [ref] proposed that costly traits (e.g., peacock tails, lion roars) are reliable precisely because they are expensive. Later research acknowledged deceptive signals, where organisms bluff by mimicking costly traits (e.g., Batesian mimicry) [ref]. Yet an important dimension remains underdeveloped: the systematic treatment of low-cost, weaponized signals in human and social conflict.