High stakes motivate honest agents to pay for separating signals

Evidence

If the stake is high enough the honest salesman will search for ways of persuading customers that he really is honest; he will be willing to spend resources to distinguish himself from his possible counterpart. This is not included in the foregoing model of reputation acquisition. — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 1007

Categorization

• XREF: When the stake is high (survival in the asylum ward), everyone claims honesty/goodness — but with sight gone no costly separable signal exists, which is why the doctor’s wife (the lone signal available) becomes the sole ordering device.