We contend that preferences for mates with resources or money might be calibrated on where a potential mate gets her/his money. In three studies (N = 668) we examined the nature of individuals’ preferences for mates who have resources or money. Both sexes preferred a long-term mate who has earned her/his money over other sources. In particular, women preferred mates who earned their money over ...

Simulations of the evolution of populations of diploid organisms showed that mate selection strategies which selected for “good genes” and strategies based on assortative mating, confer a much higher average fitness and higher evolutionary stability to populations than random mating. This advantage was more conspicuous the more genes per organism were simulated and the more genes were involved ...

In this article, 7 evolutionary hypotheses about the context-specific nature of mate attraction effectiveness were empirically tested and supported. In the context of short-term mating, for example, men have faced the adaptive problem of finding sexually accessible women. As a result, men express a preference for sexually availability in short-term mates. In Studies 1 and 2, separate groups of ...

Wetested thehypothesis that contact pheromonesmediatemate recognition inPrionus californicusMotschulsky, a species of longhorned beetle (Coleoptera: Cerambycidae) in the primitive subfamily Prioninae. Males attempted to mate with live females only after contacting themwith their antennae, and 80% of males showed an identical response to freshly killed females. Males did not attempt to mate with...

This study tested two hypotheses concerning the cognitive processes underlying human mate choice in Western society: (i) mate preference is conditional in that the selectivity of individuals' mate preference is based on their perception of themselves as long-term partners, and (ii) the decision rule governing such conditional mate preference is based on translating perception of oneself on a gi...

Bursts of rapid repeated speciation called adaptive radiations have generated much of Earth's biodiversity and fascinated biologists since Darwin, but we still do not know why some lineages radiate and others do not. Understanding what causes assortative mating to evolve rapidly and repeatedly in the same lineage is key to understanding adaptive radiation. Many species that have undergone adapt...

Although mate preference research has firmly established that men value physical attractiveness more than women do and women value social status more than men do, recent speed-dating studies have indicated mixed evidence (at best) for whether people's sex-differentiated mate preferences predict actual mate choices. According to an evolutionary, mate preference priority model (Li, Bailey, Kenric...

Female mate choice is a complex decision-making process that involves many context-dependent factors. In Drosophila melanogaster, a model species for the study of sexual selection, indirect genetic effects (IGEs) of general social interactions can influence female mate choice behaviors, but the potential impacts of IGEs associated with mating experiences are poorly understood. Here, we examined...

Sexual selection theory suggests that choice for partners carrying dissimilar genes at the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) may play a role in maintaining genetic variation in animal populations by limiting inbreeding or improving the immunity of future offspring. However, it is often difficult to establish whether the observed MHC dissimilarity among mates drives mate choice or represent...

Variation in mate choice among females can have important consequences for the operation of sexual selection, and can result from differences in the way females search for mates. Our previous work indicates that female satin bowerbirds Ptilonorhynchus violaceus alter their mate-searching patterns according to long-term experience. Females which mate with very attractive males mate with the same...