The plethora of studies devoted to the topics of male competition and female mate choice belie the fact that their interaction remains poorly understood. Indeed, on the question of whether competition should help or hinder the choice process, opinions scattered throughout the sexual selection literature seem unnecessarily polarised. We argue, in the light of recent theoretical and empirical adv...

Mate choice and sexual displays are widespread in nature, but their evolutionary benefits remain controversial. Theory predicts these traits can be favored by runaway sexual selection, in which preference and display reinforce one another due to genetic correlation; or by good genes benefits, in which mate choice is advantageous because extreme displays indicate a well-adapted genotype. However...

Sex ratio evolution has been one of the most successful areas of evolutionary theory. Pioneered by Düsing and Fisher under panmixia, and later extended by Hamilton to cover local mate competition (LMC), these models often assume, either implicitly or explicitly, that all females are fertilized. Here, we examine the effects of relaxing this assumption, under both panmictic and LMC models with di...

BACKGROUND Heritability in mate preferences is assumed by models of sexual selection, and preference evolution may contribute to adaptation to changing environments. However, mate preference is difficult to measure in natural populations as detailed data on mate availability and mate sampling are usually missing. Often the only available information is the ornamentation of the actual mate. The ...

Although empirical evidence has shown that many male traits have evolved via sexual selection by female mate choice, our understanding of the adaptive value of female mating preferences is still very incomplete. It has recently been suggested that female mate choice may result from females evolving resistance rather than attraction to males, but this has been disputed. Here, we develop a quanti...

We present a model of mate-choice (KAMA) that is based on a gradual, stochastic process of representation-building leading to marriage. KAMA reproduces empirically verifiable population-level mate-selection behavior using individual-level mate-choice mechanisms. Individuals have character profiles, which describe a number of their characteristics (physical beauty, potential earning power, etc.)...

Female mate choice copying is a socially mediated mate choice behaviour, in which a male's attractiveness to females increases if he was previously chosen by another female as a mate. Although copying has been demonstrated in numerous species, little is known about the specific benefits it confers to copying females. Here we demonstrate that the mate choice behaviour of female sailfin mollies (...

A few recent studies have suggested that glucocorticoid stress hormones can play a role in sexual selection. In terms of mate choice, these studies have shown that individuals can exhibit preferences for mates with either low baseline or peak glucocorticoid levels. This appears to occur because stress hormones can be key mediators of many condition-dependent, sexually selected traits that serve...

Recently, Foltan and Sedy proposed a hypothesis stating that the adult human VNO is integral to the prevention of inappropriate mate selection. In this commentary, we address the authors' assumption that humans have a functional VNO, that pheromones are detected exclusively by the VNO, and that human pheromones are responsible for negative stimuli during mate selection. After examining the publ...

Recently, Foltan and Sedy proposed a hypothesis stating that the adult human VNO is integral to the prevention of inappropriate mate selection. In this commentary, we address the authors’ assumption that humans have a functional VNO, that pheromones are detected exclusively by the VNO, and that human pheromones are responsible for negative stimuli during mate selection. After examining the publ...