I wonder whether playful teasing could play a similar defensive role to what dares can be argued to play[0]: provoking certain detectable socially healthy reactions, and using absence of such reactions as a negative signal (psychopathy in case of dares, perhaps something like narcissism in case of teasing).

[0] https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2016/05/05/dares-costly-signals-a..., Sarah Perry with many references to late Pieter Hintjens as well as other research.