Rob Henderson - Signalling: Why You Do The Things You Do

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Hello, friends, welcome back. My guest today is Rob Henderson, US Air Force veteran and a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge. We're talking about signalling, why you do the things you do. Signalling is something that almost everyone is doing all of the time. We're constantly leaking information about ourselves and our motives, but most of that information is involuntary. So today, expect to learn why signalling and status are intrinsically linked, how standing next to a Lexus can increase a man's attractiveness, why putting 20 expensive pens on your desk is a smart idea, why young men play loud music out of their car and much more. honestly, I could talk about evolutionary psychology and social psychology for years. It's so interesting looking at why our motives are the way they are, what are the underlying principles that are guiding our behavior, and then just looking at how ridiculous we are as animals, thinking that we're in control of the stuff that we do and that we understand our own motives. It's great. This conversation with Rob is absolutely awesome. In other news, this episode is brought to you by Pure Sport CBD. Brand new sponsor Pure Sport CBD are the highest quality CBD company that I have ever found. All of their products go through the most rigorous and advanced testing protocols in the world where they get two different third-party companies to test every single batch, which means that all their products are the highest quality available on the market. You can get a 20% discount site-wide on absolutely everything, except bundles at puresportcbd.com/modernwisdom.
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Is everyone signalling all of the time?

**Rob Henderson** (4:43)
Everyone is signalling all of the time, but people don't necessarily know they're signalling, and they're not necessarily consciously signalling all of the time. But however, we are sending information about ourselves at all times, which is sort of the classic academic definition of signalling.

**Chris Williamson** (4:59)
What, how would you define it? Someone's new to the topic, what's signalling?

**Rob Henderson** (5:04)
Well, signalling is basically, we're all constantly leaking information about ourselves from the way we talk, the way we dress, the kinds of work that we do, the activities that we choose to engage in. Signals are information that other people sort of pick up based on what they see and what kind of information they're inferring from our behaviours and so forth.