scholarly journals Social transmission of face preferences among humans

2007 ◽  
Vol 274 (1611) ◽  
pp. 899-903 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benedict C Jones ◽  
Lisa M DeBruine ◽  
Anthony C Little ◽  
Robert P Burriss ◽  
David R Feinberg
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Mate Preferences ◽  
Social Transmission ◽  
Human Species ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Mate Choice Copying ◽  
Selection For ◽  
Women’S Preferences

Previous studies demonstrating mate choice copying effects among females in non-human species have led many researchers to propose that social transmission of mate preferences may influence sexual selection for male traits. Although it has been suggested that social transmission may also influence mate preferences in humans, there is little empirical support for such effects. Here, we show that observing other women with smiling (i.e. positive) expressions looking at male faces increased women's preferences for those men to a greater extent than did observing women with neutral (i.e. relatively negative) expressions looking at male faces. By contrast, the reverse was true for male participants (i.e. observing women with neutral expressions looking at male faces increased male participant's preferences for those men to a greater extent than did observing women smiling at male faces). This latter finding suggests that within-sex competition promotes negative attitudes among men towards other men who are the target of positive social interest from women. Our findings demonstrate that social transmission of face preferences influences judgments of men's attractiveness, potentially demonstrating a mechanism for social transmission of mate preferences.

scholarly journals Menstrual cycle phase alters women's sexual preferences for composers of more complex music

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1784) ◽  
pp. 20140403 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin D. Charlton
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Charles Darwin ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Sexual Partners ◽  
Cycle Phase ◽  
Visual Artists ◽  
Sexual Preferences ◽  
Opposite Sex ◽  
Women’S Preferences ◽  
And Control

Over 140 years ago Charles Darwin first argued that birdsong and human music, having no clear survival benefit, were obvious candidates for sexual selection. Whereas the first contention is now universally accepted, his theory that music is a product of sexual selection through mate choice has largely been neglected. Here, I provide the first, to my knowledge, empirical support for the sexual selection hypothesis of music evolution by showing that women have sexual preferences during peak conception times for men that are able to create more complex music. Two-alternative forced-choice experiments revealed that woman only preferred composers of more complex music as short-term sexual partners when conception risk was highest. No preferences were displayed when women chose which composer they would prefer as a long-term partner in a committed relationship, and control experiments failed to reveal an effect of conception risk on women's preferences for visual artists. These results suggest that women may acquire genetic benefits for offspring by selecting musicians able to create more complex music as sexual partners, and provide compelling support for Darwin's assertion ‘that musical notes and rhythm were first acquired by the male or female progenitors of mankind for the sake of charming the opposite sex’.

scholarly journals Sexual selection on color and behavior within and between cichlid populations: Implications for speciation

2012 ◽  
Vol 58 (3) ◽  
pp. 475-483 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Pauers ◽  
Jeffrey S. Mckinnon
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Reproductive Isolation ◽  
Assortative Mating ◽  
Mate Preferences ◽  
Separate Experiment ◽  
Color Patterns ◽  
Male Behavior ◽  
Female Population ◽  
Different Color

Abstract Sexual selection is widely viewed as playing a central role in haplochromine cichlid speciation. Hypothetically, once divergent mate preferences evolve among populations of these fishes, reproductive isolation follows and the populations begin to behave as different species. Various studies have examined patterns of assortative mating among species and sometimes populations, but few have examined variation in directional preferences, especially among populations of the same species. We investigated mate choice behavior in two populations of Labeotropheus fuelleborni, a Lake Malawi endemic. We test whether mating preferences between populations are based on the same traits and in the same direction as preferences within populations. We examine the potential contributions of two classes of trait, color patterns and behaviors, to reproductive isolation. When females chose between either two males of their own population, or two from another, female preferences were generally similar (for the female population) across the two contexts. Mate choice patterns differed between (female) populations for a measure of color, but only modestly for male behavior. In a separate experiment we simultaneously offered females a male of their own population and a male from a different population. In these trials, females consistently preferred males from their own population, which were also the males that displayed more frequently than their opponents, but not necessarily those with color traits suggested to be most attractive in the previous experiment. Thus directional preferences for chroma and related aspects of color may be important when females are presented with males of otherwise similar phenotypes, but may play little role in mediating assortative mating among populations with substantially different color patterns. A preference for male behavior could play some role in speciation if males preferentially court same-population females, as we have observed for the populations studied herein.

Moth pheromone genetics and evolution

1993 ◽  
Vol 340 (1292) ◽  
pp. 167-177 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Sex Pheromones ◽  
Species Recognition ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Mate Recognition ◽  
Genetic Dissection ◽  
Pheromone Communication ◽  
Mate Finding ◽  
Important Progress

Sex pheromone communication in moths is a well investigated case of mate-finding by chemical signals, but the evolutionary causes of the great complexity and diversity of these signals are still not generally agreed on. In the present paper, I argue that there is no reason to dismiss species recognition as a possible cause of evolutionary change in moth sex pheromones. Admittedly, selection for species recognition cannot explain all of the diversity in sex pheromones and the data supporting this contention are weak, but the alternative causes suggested, invoking mate choice between conspecifics as the mechanism of sexual selection, has so far no empirical support. Finding and analysing genes responsible for m ate choice is important to corroborate any theory of sexual selection and speciation. In this respect genetic dissection of moth pheromone communication has provided important progress. Mendelian genes controlling differences in m ate choice and in the production of mate recognition signals have been found. Polymorphic pheromone systems give the population biologists unique possibilities to study mate choice and selection at the genotype level in nature.

Mate Choice and Mating Preferences

Mate Choice ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gil G. Rosenthal
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Animal Communication ◽  
Mate Preferences ◽  
Unified Approach ◽  
Mating Preferences ◽  
Basic Framework ◽  
Preference Functions ◽  
Key Questions

This chapter first sets out the book's purpose, which is to present a conceptually unified approach to thinking about what Darwin termed the “taste for the beautiful.” It begins by describing a basic framework for thinking about mate choice and mate preferences. It then provides an outline for how the book attempts to address key questions about how they work, how they evolve, and how they act simultaneously as targets and agents of selection. Topics discussed include the meaning of mate choice; mate choice as distinct from sexual selection; preference and antipathy underlie realized mate choices; preference functions; stages of mate choice; and mate choice as a problem in animal communication.

scholarly journals Sex differences in developmental plasticity and canalization shape population divergence in mate preferences

2014 ◽  
Vol 281 (1797) ◽  
pp. 20141636 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik I. Svensson ◽  
Anna Runemark ◽  
Machteld N. Verzijden ◽  
Maren Wellenreuther
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Developmental Plasticity ◽  
Species Recognition ◽  
Mate Preferences ◽  
Secondary Contact ◽  
Population Divergence ◽  
High Quality ◽  
Local Species ◽  
Selection For

Sexual selection of high-quality mates can conflict with species recognition if traits that govern intraspecific mate preferences also influence interspecific recognition. This conflict might be resolved by developmental plasticity and learned mate preferences, which could drive preference divergence in populations that differ in local species composition. We integrate field and laboratory experiments on two calopterygid damselfly species with population genetic data to investigate how sex differences in developmental plasticity affect population divergence in the face of gene flow. Whereas male species recognition is fixed at emergence, females instead learn to recognize heterospecifics. Females are therefore more plastic in their mate preferences than males. We suggest that this results from sex differences in the balance between sexual selection for high-quality mates and selection for species recognition. As a result of these sex differences, females develop more pronounced population divergence in their mate preferences compared with males. Local ecological community context and presence of heterospecifics in combination with sex differences in plasticity and canalization therefore shape population divergence in mate preferences. As ongoing environmental change and habitat fragmentation bring formerly allopatric species into secondary contact, developmental plasticity of mate preferences in either or both sexes might facilitate coexistence and prevent local species extinction.

scholarly journals A multivariate analysis of women's mating strategies and sexual selection on men's facial morphology

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 191209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tessa R. Clarkson ◽  
Morgan J. Sidari ◽  
Rosanna Sains ◽  
Meredith Alexander ◽  
Melissa Harrison ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Mate Preferences ◽  
Mating Strategies ◽  
Facial Morphology ◽  
Mate Value ◽  
Significant Positive Association ◽  
Facial Masculinity ◽  
Moral Disgust

The strength and direction of sexual selection via female choice on masculine facial traits in men is a paradox in human mate choice research. While masculinity may communicate benefits to women and offspring directly (i.e. resources) or indirectly (i.e. health), masculine men may be costly as long-term partners owing to lower paternal investment. Mating strategy theory suggests women's preferences for masculine traits are strongest when the costs associated with masculinity are reduced. This study takes a multivariate approach to testing whether women's mate preferences are context-dependent. Women ( n = 919) rated attractiveness when considering long-term and short-term relationships for male faces varying in beardedness (clean-shaven and full beards) and facial masculinity (30% and 60% feminized, unmanipulated, 30% and 60% masculinized). Participants then completed scales measuring pathogen, sexual and moral disgust, disgust towards ectoparasites, reproductive ambition, self-perceived mate value and the facial hair in partners and fathers. In contrast to past research, we found no associations between pathogen disgust, self-perceived mate value or reproductive ambition and facial masculinity preferences. However, we found a significant positive association between moral disgust and preferences for masculine faces and bearded faces. Preferences for beards were lower among women with higher ectoparasite disgust, providing evidence for ectoparasite avoidance hypothesis. However, women reporting higher pathogen disgust gave higher attractiveness ratings for bearded faces than women reporting lower pathogen disgust, providing support for parasite-stress theories of sexual selection and mate choice. Preferences for beards were also highest among single and married women with the strongest reproductive ambition. Overall, our results reflect mixed associations between individual differences in mating strategies and women's mate preferences for masculine facial traits.

scholarly journals Aesthetic evolution by mate choice: Darwin's really dangerous idea

2012 ◽  
Vol 367 (1600) ◽  
pp. 2253-2265 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard O. Prum
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Null Model ◽  
Mate Preferences ◽  
Good Genes ◽  
Aesthetic Theory ◽  
Communication Signal ◽  
Direct Benefits ◽  
Selection Research ◽  
Aesthetic Evolution

Darwin proposed an explicitly aesthetic theory of sexual selection in which he described mate preferences as a ‘taste for the beautiful’, an ‘aesthetic capacity’, etc. These statements were not merely colourful Victorian mannerisms, but explicit expressions of Darwin's hypothesis that mate preferences can evolve for arbitrarily attractive traits that do not provide any additional benefits to mate choice. In his critique of Darwin, A. R. Wallace proposed an entirely modern mechanism of mate preference evolution through the correlation of display traits with male vigour or viability, but he called this mechanism natural selection. Wallace's honest advertisement proposal was stridently anti-Darwinian and anti-aesthetic. Most modern sexual selection research relies on essentially the same Neo-Wallacean theory renamed as sexual selection. I define the process of aesthetic evolution as the evolution of a communication signal through sensory/cognitive evaluation, which is most elaborated through coevolution of the signal and its evaluation. Sensory evaluation includes the possibility that display traits do not encode information that is being assessed, but are merely preferred. A genuinely Darwinian, aesthetic theory of sexual selection requires the incorporation of the Lande–Kirkpatrick null model into sexual selection research, but also encompasses the possibility of sensory bias, good genes and direct benefits mechanisms.

scholarly journals The complexities of female mate choice and male polymorphisms: Elucidating the role of genetics, age, and mate-choice copying

2015 ◽  
Vol 61 (6) ◽  
pp. 1015-1035 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kasey D. Fowler-Finn ◽  
Laura Sullivan-Beckers ◽  
Amy M. Runck ◽  
Eileen A. Hebets
Keyword(s):  
Sexual Selection ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Genetic Basis ◽  
Female Mate Choice ◽  
Female Mate ◽  
Mate Choice Copying ◽  
Male Phenotype ◽  
Sexual Traits ◽  
The Difference

Abstract Genetic, life history, and environmental factors dictate patterns of variation in sexual traits within and across populations, and thus the action and outcome of sexual selection. This study explores patterns of inheritance, diet, age, and mate-choice copying on the expression of male sexual signals and associated female mate choice in a phenotypically diverse group of Schizocosa wolf spiders. Focal spiders exhibit one of two male phenotypes: ‘ornamented’ males possess large black brushes on their forelegs, and ‘non-ornamented’ males possess no brushes. Using a quantitative genetics breeding design in a mixed population of ornamented/non-ornamented males, we found a strong genetic basis to male phenotype and female choice. We also found that some ornamented males produced some sons with large brushes and others with barely visible brushes. Results of diet manipulations and behavioral mating trials showed no influence of diet on male phenotype or female mate choice. Age post maturation, however, influenced mate choice, with younger females being more likely to mate with ornamented males. A mate-choice copying experiment found that, following observations of another female’s mate choice/copulation, virgin mature females tended to match the mate choice (ornamented vs. non-ornamented males) of the females they observed. Finally, analyses of genetic variation across phenotypically pure (only one male phenotype present) vs. mixed (both phenotypes present) populations revealed genetic distinction between phenotypes in phenotypically-pure populations, but no distinctionin phenotypically-mixed populations. The difference in patterns of genetic differentiation and mating across geographic locations suggests a complex network of factors contributing to the outcome of sexual selection.

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