Signaller

Synonyms

Manager; Manipulator; Sender

Definition

Any individual who produces a signal during the communication process.

There are many definitions of a signaller in the communication literature, which vary from manipulator to cooperative informer to continuous manager. Krebs and Dawkins (1984) provided a more manipulative view of the communicative process. They felt that signallers were “manipulators.” For example, in order for a communicative signal to persist in the environment, it must coevolve with a signaller and a receiver; therefore the manipulator’s role is that of the sender or signaller altering the listener’s behavior in a way to directly benefit the sender (Krebs and Dawkins 1984). In a similar way to the definition of receivers, the definition of a signaller (as a manipulator) relies heavily on the fact that signals are reliable and provide honest cues that receivers can act upon. Thus, the handicap principle plays a key role in the idea of manipulation. Zahavi (1975)...