Mating Selection Research Paper

In his article, The Strategies of Finding a Mate, David M. Buss discusses the act of finding a mate and the characteristics that people are drawn to in a mate. He begins the article with a brief look at the history of mating and the theories that have previously been proposed. In particular he addressed Charles Darwin’s theory of sexual evolution and belief in preferential mate choice. Buss proposes that there are three components to human mating. He states that “human mating is inherently strategic… mating strategies are context-dependent… [and that] men and women have faced different mating problems over the course of human evolution and, as a consequence, have evolved different strategies” (Buss, 1994, p. 241). He uses this theory to propose nine different hypotheses to prove that despite humans being varied and different from each other, all humans look for similar characteristics when trying to find a mate (Buss, 1994).

In another study, Langlois and Roggaman (1990) took photos of faces and morphed them together to produce composite images made up of 4, 8, 16 or 32 images. Participants rated faces as increasingly attractive the more faces that went into each image; this applied to both male and female faces. The more faces in an image, the more symmetrical they become, it seems that moving a facial image closer to the average increases its perceived attractiveness. It is likely that symmetry equates to fitness and “good genes”, these people are less likely to have been affected by harmful mutation. People with attractive faces are preferred because of the benefits of passing on these attractive characteristics to offspring. Little & Hancock propose that humans have evolved to be attracted to symmetrical faces because they indicate “averageness”, which equates to genetic health. Grammar and Thornhill (1994) found that females are attracted to males with masculine characteristics, for example: large jaw and prominent cheekbones. These features arise as a result of testosterone, which is also a handicap because it suppresses the immune system. Therefore, showing only “healthy” individuals can afford to produce these traits- advertising a strong immune system. Cartwright (2000) supported this, finding men prefer photographs of women with symmetrical faces and vice versa.

This essay aims to show a comparison between the differences between both female short-term mating strategies and female long-term mating strategies. It will explore the evolution of psychology that has shown reasons for human mating and how these reasons go above and beyond the general idea of physical attractiveness and love. This essay will identify how mate preferences have evolved and further identify psychological mechanisms that women have used to select their mates over the past. This essay will compare and critically discuss the differences and outline them between female short-term mating strategies and female long-term mating

Sexual selection is categorized in to two categories; intersexual selection and intrasexual competition. Intersexual selection is also known as mate choice or female choice in which males competes with fellow males for female. This means that the male must develop a feature that would attract the opposite sex; sometimes this can lead to fashion. The conditions determining which factor becomes more limited can be explained by the way of Bateman’s Principle which states that the sex which invest most in producing off springs becomes a limited over which the other sex will fight for. Intrasexual competition is also known as male-male competition where by members of the less

In this chapter, Orr and Zuk explains the importance of ornaments of males and the mechanism behind sexual selection. The questions that they seek to answer involve the fact that why are the males fighting during mating season, and the ones with the colorful ornaments. In both human and animal relationship, there are many similarities, such as the fact that the male fights for the female such as their masculinity or traits that females look for whether an animal or a human. Darwin in The Origin explained that sexual selection involves competition, but for mating instead of fighting for survival, in The Descent went on to explain the relevance of the traits like the peacock tails.

Within the past decade we have witnessed a series of new developments and an enormously growing interest in the understanding of human behaviour, especially when it comes to the basic principles of human mate choice. Mate preference is something which is often considered a very individual choice and appears to be influenced by cultural and economic norms. However, on the basis of numerous research works, it is a today’s acceptation that attractiveness represents a signal resulting from sexual selection. Although we have different preference for facial expression, body shape or height, recent findings suggest that mate preferences are mainly cued on

There are many factors that influence female attraction towards men, and many of them are driven by women’s menstrual cycle. Sexual attraction in females has been shown to increase during the ovulatory phase of the menstrual cycle, which is the period of most fertility (Gangestad & Thornhill, 1998). Evolutionarily, this time is beneficial because it would be more likely for a female to conceive if she were more prone to attraction towards men during her fertile period. It has also been shown that female mate preferences change across the ovulatory cycle. Men with particular attributes, such as facial symmetry, are preferred during the period of most fertility (Gangestad & Thornhill, 1998). This can be explained by the Ovulatory Shift Hypothesis, first proposed by Gangestad and Thornhill (1998). Gangestad and Thornhill (1998) make three predictions within this hypothesis. This first prediction includes the ‘good genes principle,’ that women are attracted to certain attributes that signify that a male has “high genetic quality” (Gildersleeve, Haselton, & Fales, 2014). This could mean that a certain individual possesses genes that would increase an offspring’s’ fitness and, therefore the parent’s fitness, or do not possess genes that would be harmful to an offspring. Therefore, theoretically, if a female were more attracted to a male based on the male having high quality genes, she would more likely conceive an offspring with that individual. This would, in turn,

Therefore, mate choice is extremely important for individuals to avoid mating with the wrong species but it also operates within a species as well. This tendency to avoid heterospecific mates is called behavioral isolation. Mate choice can be important in the evolutionary process, speciation, in which populations of conspecific diverge into separate species (Ecology and Evolution Behavior Lab Packet).

Males and females differ considerably in how much they each invest in order to make offspring and a result of this, they approach mating with different methods. Researchers and scientists learn and examine these varying mating systems to explain how males and females pair up. A mating system explains the techniques males and females use to pair up when selecting a mate. It is important to begin by reviewing and understanding the reproductive strategies among primates. The major types of mating systems found in primates are monogamy and polygamy. Monogamy is a practice of mating in which one male pairs with one female. Polygamy also known as bisexual, is a pattern of mating in which a male mates with more than one female and a female mates with more than one male (Wong , 2010). Polygamy is then clarified into polygyny and polyandry. Polygyny is when one male mates with multiple females. Polyandry is when one female mates with multiple males. Recognizing the diversity of mating systems will help in understanding the interactive relationship of sexual size dimorphism and behavior in primates.

Annotated Bibliography- Pheromones Doty, Richard L. “Neurobiology of Chemical Communication.” Human Pheromones, 2014. Richard Doty is the director of the University of Peninsula Smell and Taste Center starting in 1980. Doty describes pheromones as substances which are secreted to the outside by an individual of the same species, in which they release a specific reaction for example, a definite behavior or a developmental process. Scientists while looking at insects see that they release pheromones that send signals regarding mating, food, and warning signs but are unsure when comparing this to humans.

“Romantic love modulates women’s identification of men’s body odors.” is a scholarly article. This article is about women going to continuing loving their boyfriend’s when they identify their body odors. Romantic love is a powerful emotions towards couples. But, would this powerful love continue when women identify something they disagree about men’s. Would this bring women closer together with their boyfriends or would this drag them apart. So they tested out this theory by having women identify their boyfriend’s body odor, the same sex, and the opposite sex. The result in a positive and negative thing. Some couples have got closer together by having a strong romantic love for each other. The negative results is some women did not like the

Another evolutionary explanation of gender development is mate choice, which suggests that gender role behaviours are related to reproductive strategies. It is thought that men will look for women who are young whereas women are usually more interested in the resources of a mate. This can be explained from an evolutionary perspective as mating with a physically attractive woman

There are a variety of different mating strategies among different male dolphins species. “Male mating strategies and forms of competitive interaction among male cetaceans lead to the development of sexually dimorphic features such as prominent postanal humps, reproductive adaptation such as large testis size, and retained bodily scarring caused by interactions with conspecifics.” (Murphy, 2005) Cetacean have been noted to either have a polygynous or polygynandrous mating system. (Murphy, 2005) These mating systems have led to a number of different types of competition among males such as contest competition (where males limit the access of other males to females by aggressive displays or fights) scramble competition (competition to disperse and find sexually receptive females), endurance-rivalry competition (competition to remain sexually active over a longer period of time), mate-choice competition (competition in courtship), and sperm competition (competition between the sperm of 2 or more males).” (Murphy, 2005) Individual males will use these different strategies depending on their dominance in rank, size, age , and number and quality of reproductive females. (Murphy, 2005) Contest competition and courtship competition have been documented in polygynous species such as bottlenose dolphin (tursiops truncates), and humpback whales.( Murphy, 2005) “Sexual dimorphism in size, weaponry (teeth and husks), and

The first few chapters discuss in depth both the general rules for mate selection and the differences in mate selection and varying preferences for male and female genders. As explained in the intro the author theorizes that the current behavior of humans in relation to mating behavior can be linked to our evolutionary past. He references Charles Darwin 's theory of evolution and his idea of natural selection, which is the the process through which organisms adapt to their environment and in doing so tend to

In addition, an experiment by McClintock showed that women were attracted to the smell of a man who was genetically similar, but not too similar, to their fathers ((1)). Therefore, our genetic information might play a role in whether or not someone is desirable in order to avoid inbreeding or, on the other end of the spectrum, to avoid the loss of desirable gene combinations. Inevitably, however, it is our brain that processes another individual's appearance, lifestyle, how they relate to past individuals we have met, and, possibly, their pheromones. Then, based on this information, we decide, within our brain, whether or not this person is worth getting to know.