Cheap Talk
Words cost nothing, so they prove nothing. Anyone can say it. Watch what's expensive.
Grounded in the research on Cheap talk (Wikipedia)
What it actually is
Cheap talk is communication that's costless, non-binding, and unverifiable. Vincent Crawford and Joel Sobel nailed it down in 1982 ("Strategic Information Transmission," Econometrica). Translation: I can say anything, it costs me nothing, no court can check it, and saying it doesn't lock me into doing it. "I'll definitely pay you back," "we should hang out," "I'm so close to launching" — all cheap talk until something backs it.
Why words prove nothing
In a cheap-talk game a liar lies with impunity — there's no penalty built into the message itself. Crawford and Sobel proved full honesty (the "separating" equilibrium) is NOT stable, while "babbling" — talk that carries zero info — is ALWAYS an equilibrium. So when interests clash, the math says talk decays into noise by default. People can still choose honesty, but nothing in the talk forces it.