Moves carry evidential weight that cheap talk cannot convey

Evidence

This is one of the reasons why talk is not a substitute for moves. Moves can in some way alter the game, by incurring manifest costs, risks, or a reduced range of subsequent choice; they have an information content, or evidence content, of a different character from that of speech. Talk can be cheap when moves are not (except for the “talk” that takes the form of enforcible threats, promises, commitments, and so forth, and that is to be analyzed under the heading of moves rather than communication anyway). Mutual accommodation ultimately requires, if the outcome is to be efficient, that the division of gains be in accordance with “comparative advantage”; that is, the things a player concedes should be those that he wants less than the other player, relative to the things he trades for. Each needs, therefore, to communicate his value system with some truth, although each can also gain by deceiving. While one’s maneuvers are not unambiguous in their revelation of one’s value systems and may even be deliberately deceptive, they nevertheless have an evidential quality that mere speech has not. — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 282

Categorization

• XREF: Directly frames the Godfather-bonds and hostage-mechanics logic the reader is mapping from Gambetta and Milgrom: the Mafia’s violent ‘moves’ carry credibility that verbal protestations lack, which is precisely the private-enforcement substitute-for-state-legitimacy chain. — connects to: The power to send but not receive gives a bargainer an unanswerable advantage — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 152; Moves reveal value systems and commit players where speech cannot — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 240; Credible threats can be conveyed by action rather than verbal pledge — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 34 (+5 more)
• DEFINE: Establishes the talk/moves distinction foundational to the entire commitment-enforcement mechanism in the analytical framework.

Related

• Moves reveal value systems and commit players where speech cannot (similarity 0.85)
• Costly public deeds signal genuine belief that words can fake (similarity 0.82)
• Commitments must be communicated through evidence, not just words. (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Credible threats can be conveyed by action rather than verbal pledge #expands (0.95) — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 34
• Strategic moves work by constraining one’s own behavior to shape an opponent’s expectations. #expands (0.90) — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 361
• Deceptive judicial rhetoric does not refute explanations of behavior #exemplifies (0.80) — Richard A. Posner, What Has Pragmatism to Offer Law?, 120
• Bare assertions of non-hostility cannot substitute for authenticable facts #exemplifies (0.80) — Thomas C. Schelling, The Strategy of Conflict, 569