Construct · 2 fields · 2 citations

Where does bluff collide?

One name. Different field. Different construct. One map.

● jingle · one word, two constructs Nearest construct by meaning·not indexed
bluff2 CONSTRUCTSStrategic bluffVON NEUMANN · 1944Animal bluffADAMS & CALDWELL · 1990

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1944Strategic bluff1990Animal bluff
2026

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Game theory

Betting strength you don't hold

In game theory a bluff is a strategic act of representing a weak hand as a strong one, committing resources to induce an opponent to fold a better position. Von Neumann and Morgenstern's Theory of Games and Economic Behavior showed with a simplified poker model that optimal play is necessarily mixed: a rational player must bluff with some positive probability on weak hands, because a never-bluffing strategy is exploitable and so cannot be an equilibrium. The referent here is a randomized move in a game of incomplete information, quantified by a bluffing frequency, and it is unrelated to a steep landform or an animal's threat display beyond the shared meaning of a convincing false front.[1]

Unit
The optimal probability of betting strongly while holding a weak hand
Recovery means
Not applicable
Measured by
Derived as the bluffing frequency in the mixed-strategy equilibrium of a game of incomplete information

Animal behaviour

An exaggerated threat an animal can't back up

In animal behaviour a bluff is a dishonest signal: an individual displays a threat or readiness to fight that exceeds its true condition or willingness, so that rivals retreat without the cost of a real contest. Adams and Caldwell's 1990 Deceptive communication in asymmetric fights of the stomatopod crustacean Gonodactylus bredini documented newly moulted mantis shrimp, whose soft bodies make them unable to fight, performing the same aggressive meral-spread display as hard, dangerous individuals. The referent is a deceptive display within signalling theory, assessed by whether the signal's intensity tracks the signaller's actual fighting ability, and it is a different construct from a strategic poker move or a geographic headland.[2]

Unit
The gap between displayed threat and the signaller's true fighting ability
Recovery means
Not applicable
Measured by
Tested by whether aggressive displays predict actual fighting ability and contest outcome

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Nearby collisions

bank1 fields · 1 citationsanchor · a standalone constructcondition2 fields · 2 citationsjingle · one word, two constructsconstruct6 fields · 7 citationsjingle · one name, six constructs

References

  1. von Neumann, J., & Morgenstern, O. (1944). Theory of games and economic behavior. Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691130613
  2. Adams, E. S., & Caldwell, R. L. (1990). Deceptive communication in asymmetric fights of the stomatopod crustacean Gonodactylus bredini. Animal Behaviour, 39(4), 706–716. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0003-3472(05)80382-3

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