ABSTRACT

Before I turn to psychologists’ efforts to understand the power of caricatures, I want to consider the case of natural caricatures. Like human artists, animals also exploit the power of caricatures. Extravagant sexual ornaments like the peacock’s gaudy tail, the baroque splendour of bird of paradise tails, the mannerist tails of lyrebirds, widowbirds, and swallows, and the nightingale’s complex song are all caricatures or exaggerations of standard-issue attributes. Extreme signals are also used outside of the courtship arena. Elaborate song and fancy plumage deter rivals, brilliant coloration and extreme movements deter predators, and the conspicuous and exaggerated begging signals of young birds elicit feeding (for a review see Zahavi, 1991). In this chapter I will investigate why these natural caricatures are so common and what they tell us about the nature of recognition systems. I will begin, as biologists have done, with the case of extravagant sexual ornaments (for more detailed discussions see Andersson, 1994; Cronin, 1991; Gould & Gould, 1989; Ridley, 1993).