Apart from the direct evolutionary responses from capacity to fight, willingness to take risks and success in combat, there is also stotting behavior.

A lot of what men in particular do, which is show-off, long-term useless and even detrimental, but which constitutes part of courtship behaviors and signals, is pretty much stotting.

Many examples have been pointed out: usage of drugs (including legal drugs) is often cited: I am so fit I can blow a hill of coke is stotting. Luxury goods are also included: a $1m car commutes the same as a $10k car; a discount shelf suit is as professional attire as the last from Paris; a Rolex gives the time as good as a cheap plastic Made In China with a liquid crystal face. These white elephants are stotting behaviors: I am so rich I can waste money like this. In economically or socially deprived environments, a lot of the tendencies for criminalization, or glorification of crime, or imitation of criminals, are also stotting: brandishing illegal firearms, bling, tattooing, dress codes; as of course we know real (and many times imitation) criminals too often end up shot or jailed.

Being tough, or rather, acting tough, in the face of injury and illness, is in part a strategy to improve combat-readiness, as you say. But it is also stotting behavior: I am so fit that this is just a scratch.



Now don't look at me. This on my neck really is just a scratch.

(It really didn't hurt. Blood was everywhere but it really wasn't painful.)