MATE CHOICE COPYING IN GUPPIES: FEMALES AVOID THE PLACE WHERE THEY SAW COURTSHIP

Behaviour ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 136 (4) ◽  
pp. 411-421 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Brooks
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Predator Avoidance ◽  
Foraging Strategy ◽  
Dichotomous Choice ◽  
Cultural Inheritance ◽  
Australian Population ◽  
Mating Preferences ◽  
Mate Choice Copying ◽  
Choice Strategy ◽  
Tank Design

AbstractRecent evidence shows that females of many species may copy the mate choice of other females, potentially resulting in the cultural inheritance of mating preferences. The best evidence of mate choice copying has been obtained from studies on guppies, but studies on some guppy populations have failed to find evidence of copying. I report on an experiment in which I found no evidence of mate choice copying in a feral Australian population, either in a traditional 'dichotomous choice tank' design or when females had an opportunity to swim and interact freely with the males. Instead, I found that females tended to avoid the side of the tank on which they had seen a male courting a female. This may not be a mate choice strategy, but possibly a predator avoidance or foraging strategy.

scholarly journals Cultural flies: Conformist social learning in fruitflies predicts long-lasting mate-choice traditions

Science ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 362 (6418) ◽  
pp. 1025-1030 ◽  
Author(s):  
Etienne Danchin ◽  
Sabine Nöbel ◽  
Arnaud Pocheville ◽  
Anne-Cecile Dagaeff ◽  
Léa Demay ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Learning ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Cultural Inheritance ◽  
Theoretical Justification ◽  
Mating Preferences ◽  
Transmission Chain ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Local Traditions ◽  
Animal Culture

Despite theoretical justification for the evolution of animal culture, empirical evidence for it beyond mammals and birds remains scant, and we still know little about the process of cultural inheritance. In this study, we propose a mechanism-driven definition of animal culture and test it in the fruitfly. We found that fruitflies have five cognitive capacities that enable them to transmit mating preferences culturally across generations, potentially fostering persistent traditions (the main marker of culture) in mating preference. A transmission chain experiment validates a model of the emergence of local traditions, indicating that such social transmission may lead initially neutral traits to become adaptive, hence strongly selecting for copying and conformity. Although this situation was suggested decades ago, it previously had little empirical support.

scholarly journals Mate-choice copying: Status quo and where to go

2015 ◽  
Vol 61 (6) ◽  
pp. 1073-1081 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaudia Witte ◽  
Nina Kniel ◽  
Ilka Maria Kureck
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Public Information ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
Sexual Ornaments ◽  
Mate Choice Copying ◽  
Current State ◽  
Choice Strategy ◽  
State Of Research

Abstract Mate-choice copying is a fascinating and widespread mate-choice strategy. Individuals gather public information about potential mates by observing others during sexual interactions and choose or reject the same individual as a mate as the observed individual did before. The influence of copying behavior on an individual’s mate choice can be so strong that socially acquired information can override genetically based preferences for certain phenotypes. Thus, mate-choice copying enforces dynamic processes in sexual selection. Here, we review the current state of research on mate-choice copying and focus on sex-specific aspects. We present evidence that mate-choice copying can support the evolution of novel sexual ornaments, and we discuss potential costs of mate-choice copying when public information is not reliable. Moreover, we discuss the conflict faced by males that copy since mate-choice copying increases sperm competition. In conclusion we suggest interesting topics for future research in mate-choice copying.

Are males in a relationship flirted with more? Testing for mate choice copying in humans

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niels van de Ven ◽  
Monique Maria Henriettte Pollmann ◽  
Rob Nelissen ◽  
Nadiya Sayenko
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Mate Choice Copying ◽  
Two Samples ◽  
Absolute Measure ◽  
Cast Doubt

Ample anecdotal and some scientific evidence suggests that men who enter a relationship feel that they are flirted with more frequently than before they had a partner. This phenomenon has been interpreted as a form of mate choice copying; the idea that females prefer males that are in a relationship with another female. In two samples (N = 271 and N = 396) we replicate that people indicate that flirting increased after entering a relationship. However, on a more absolute measure (how often people feel they are flirted with), we did not find that those in a relationship felt to be flirted with more than those without one. Our findings cast doubt on the interpretation that ours (and similar) findings are support for mate choice copying, and we argue that alternative explanations should be considered.

Mate-Choice Copying as Bayesian Decision Making

2005 ◽  
Vol 165 (3) ◽  
pp. 403
Author(s):  
Uehara ◽  
Yokomizo ◽  
Iwasa
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Bayesian Decision ◽  
Mate Choice Copying ◽  
Bayesian Decision Making

scholarly journals MATE CHOICE AND HUMAN STATURE: HOMOGAMY AS A UNIFIED FRAMEWORK FOR UNDERSTANDING MATING PREFERENCES

Evolution ◽  
2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandre Courtiol ◽  
Michel Raymond ◽  
Bernard Godelle ◽  
Jean-Baptiste Ferdy
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Unified Framework ◽  
Mating Preferences

Variation III: Social Environment and Epigenetics

Mate Choice ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gil G. Rosenthal
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Social Interactions ◽  
Social Environment ◽  
Sexual Maturity ◽  
Horizontal Transmission ◽  
Epigenetic Modifications ◽  
Older Individuals ◽  
Mating Preferences ◽  
Sources Of Variation ◽  
Sexually Mature

This chapter focuses on social interactions, in the broadest sense, as sources of variation in mate choice and mating preferences. These interactions can be divided into three categories corresponding to when they are specified and which individuals are involved. The first includes effects that are determined before birth and transmitted vertically from parents: epigenetic modifications to the genome and the fetal or embryonic environment. The second includes influences between birth and sexual maturity, when the phenotypes of parents and/or other sexually mature, older individuals (oblique transmission) direct the development of preferences in choosers. Experience with courters and choosers after sexual maturity, or experience with other juveniles that shapes subsequent preferences, constitutes peer (horizontal) transmission.

Variation in Preferences and Choices: General Considerations

Mate Choice ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gil G. Rosenthal
Keyword(s):  
Mate Choice ◽  
Social Variables ◽  
Mating Preferences ◽  
Important Constraint ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms

This chapter provides an overview of variation in mating preferences, focusing on the repeatability of mate choice. Variation in mate choice and mating preferences can arise from differences within and between individuals in any of the mechanisms used to sense, perceive, and evaluate courter signals before, during, and after mating, and in the mechanisms they use to sample and choose among mates. Preferences frequently covary with traits not directly involved with mate choice. These patterns of covariation, among preferences and between preferences and other traits, may arise either from properties internal to choosers, like shared underlying mechanisms or statistically associated genetic underpinnings, or from correlations among environmental and social variables that shape preferences. These correlations represent an important constraint on the directions in which preferences can evolve.

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