What is the word for a trait that is actually a handicap but implies good health and mating prospects?

The only term i can think of is a costly signal.

Are you thinking of the handicap principle? Examples would be birdsongs and expensive jewelry.

@bkcunningham I looked at the paper and saw a reference to Zahavi, 1975. That is it!
A Zahavi Handicap or Zahavi’s handicap.

Rolex watch.

@LuckyGuy A more general term everyone would likely understand is mixed blessing.

A few human examples that come to mind:

Bodybuilders: I know a few I remember why they got started, to attract women. Now they spend thousands of dollars in gym and equipment costs nutrition or protein shakes and hours staying in top peak and always pushing for more.

The women in their life never last too long because they are a distraction. Their bodies aren’t perfect, etc.

Large boobs: they are heavy hurt a woman’s back and get in the way. It is hard to run or be active when you have loose and bouncing fat disrupting equilibrium.

Being good looking. So many of the best of the good looking of my friends and or boyfriends have stayed single because it is so easy to get a mate. None of them are just right and it really is just easier to continue the search then settle down when the flaws become a little too real.

Intelligence some of the happiest people I know are untroubled with thoughts questions and doubts or just looking deep into things. They simply accept what is in front of them and look forward to some beer and a pasttime that involves sitting in front of some tv.

The first thing I thought of was wide hips in women. Great, thanks, I won’t have any trouble with childbirth. Just what I want to know when I’m 14 years old and worried about my looks.

Oh, maybe “trophy wife”?

These are great examples.

I thought of a large, well landscaped lawn. It is a PIA to maintain but if you are well off enough to have one it likely means you have enough money to pay someone to do it.

Obviously antisymmetric features. Think people with one eyebrow raised and another typically curved.

Heterochromia, eyes with completely different colors, is one you find in a lot of famous celebrity beauties. Jane Seymour, Alice Eve, Mila Kunis, Demi Moore, Kate Bosworth. Some guy actors too, but I didn’t know the names.

Here’s a fascinating article about scrotums that mentions the handicap principle as a possible explanation for external (vulnerable) scrotums in mammals.

I thought of another one. Long (clean) fingernails.

@syz Great article! If I were in charge of design I would make them retractable like the scrotum on a hamster.

@LuckyGuy Retractable with a very rapid-response collision avoidance system for mine, if you will.

On the way home from the office today I was passed by a motorcycle rider on a shiny Harley Davison Forty Eight . It was sharp looking and I couldn’t help but notice. It was even quiet!
About a minute later I was getting off at my exit and there was the bike and the rider on the ground, the ignition still on, steam rising from the exhaust. He was going too fast and did not make it around the clover leaf. I made sure he was coherent, turned off the ignition and helped stand the bike up so fuel would not pour out everywhere and catch fire.. We checked out the bike and I agreed to follow him about 10 miles so he could get into town.
While driving behind him I thought about what happened and realized that a motorcycle is like a Zahavi Handicap. If we both drove by a woman of a certain ilk, which one of us would she notice: me in my boring, steel gray Tahoe or him on his shiny, black HD48?

@LuckyGuy Then again, if he tries to take another clover leaf too fast and bites it, which one will she notice, the one that’s still alive, or the HD48 rider’s ghost?

@ETpro See? That is what makes it a Zahavi Handicap. If he survives then he must be the more virile mate. It is not the smartest form of mate selection but it apparently works. After all, you still see guys riding Harleys.

If at an early age women were taught that motorcycles were surrogates to make up for teeny, weenies (sorry for the technical term) there would be fewer on the road. Unless…. women secretly favor smaller hardware. (I can hope. )

By the way, his broken helmet face shield and fresh air intake are still in my car.

@LuckyGuy Wow. the guy nearly bought the farm in that episode. Reason enough to think his long-term mating strategy may be a loser. Besides, it’s not the individual that matters in evolution, but the gene pool. Genes that select for take excessive risks are likely to be failures in the gene pool.

You’d think those gene would die out -but the females select for them. They mate with the bad boys. The peacock hen will mate with the male with the biggest and brightest feathers even though the male can’t fly well with them. He struts his stuff while putting himeslf in danger of predators. Isn’t that the same thing?
Women could fix mankind if they considered Zahavi handicaps true handicaps. “That guy is wearing a Rolex. I won’t mate with him It shows he has a spending problem.” “That guys with the sleek black motorcycle is 80x more likely to be killed in an accident than the guy in the Tahoe. And the Tahoe guy can haul groceries and tow me out of a ditch in winter. I think I’ll mate with Mr Tahoe”.
I won’t hold my breath.

I saw this TED talk this morning, and thought of this question. If you haven’t seen this presentation yet, I’m sure you’ll appreciate it.

Thanks! Now I want to make a teardrop shaped stone hand axe.
Will women will swoon If I break out my Leatherman ?

You never know. You might be surprised at the reaction I got last week at a demonstration of “how to use a chalk line” and follow simple directions to install a no-dig fence, and then stay at the job past the point where it was a fun lark and work until her materials ran out. I also did an unintentional Sam Clemens thing where I apparently made it look like fun… so she had to try, too. (And a good thing, too, because my knees were killing me.)

I hope we finish before the cold and rainy weather starts. She’s having her hair done today, a process that should take the day. It’s just as well; my legs took a while this week to relearn how to walk up and down stairs.

@CWOTUS Thanks for the link. Fascinating TED Talk.