Value-Based Pricing

Biological Parallel

The peacock's tail has no intrinsic value—it's metabolically expensive to produce and maintain, impairs flight, and attracts predators. Its entire worth derives from peahen perception: females value elaborate tails as honest signals of male genetic quality and parasite resistance. The "price" males pay (energetic cost, predation risk) is set not by production cost but by the signaling value to the audience. Like luxury goods, the costlier the signal, the more valuable it becomes—value based purely on receiver perception, not producer cost.