Description
A major new look at the evolution of mating decisions in organisms from protozoans to humans
The popular consensus on mate choice has long been that females select mates likely to pass good genes to offspring. In Mate Choice, Gil Rosenthal overturns much of this conventional wisdom. Providing the first synthesis of the topic in more than three decades, and drawing from a wide range of fields, including animal behavior, evolutionary biology, social psychology, neuroscience, and economics, Rosenthal argues that "good genes" play a relatively minor role in shaping mate choice decisions and demonstrates how mate choice is influenced by genetic factors, environmental effects, and social interactions.
Looking at diverse organisms, from protozoans to humans, Rosenthal explores how factors beyond the hunt for good genes combine to produce an endless array of preferences among species and individuals. He explains how mating decisions originate from structural constraints on perception and from nonsexual functions, and how single organisms benefit or lose from their choices. Both the origin of species and their fusion through hybridization are strongly influenced by direct selection on preferences in sexual and nonsexual contexts. Rosenthal broadens the traditional scope of mate choice research to encompass not just animal behavior and behavioral ecology but also neurobiology, the social sciences, and other areas.
Focusing on mate choice mechan
Chapter
3.7. Sensory constraints on mating preferences
Chapter 4. Beyond the Periphery: Perception, Cognition, and Multivariate Preferences
4.2. Mechanisms of perceptual integration
4.3. Categorical perception
4.4. Integration rules for complex preferences
4.5. Synthesis: complex preferences as integrated phenotypes
Chapter 5. Aesthetics and Evaluation in Mate Choice
5.1. Introduction: “A taste for the beautiful”
5.2. Universals of beauty?
5.3. Detection and evaluation as distinct components of mate choice
5.4. Mechanisms of evaluation
5.5. Evaluative mechanisms and perception are related: “beauty in the processing experience”
5.6. Plasticity and evolvability of evaluative mechanisms
Chapter 6. From Preferences to Choices: Mate Sampling and Mating Decisions
6.2. The biological context of mate choice
6.3. Mate sampling algorithms in theory and practice
6.4. Sequential and static: fixed-threshold rules
6.5. Sequential and dynamic: adjustable thresholds
6.6. Simultaneous and static: comparative evaluation and (in)transitivity
6.7. Simultaneous and dynamic: best-of-n, comparative Bayes, and random walk
6.8. Sampling multiple traits
6.11. The marginal cost of sampling and choice
Chapter 7. Mate Choice During and After Mating
7.2. Remating and choice of multiple mates
7.3. Biasing fertilization
7.4. Resource allocation to offspring
7.5. Mate choice across stages: premating decisions and cryptic choice
7.6. Synthesis: what is different about cryptic choice?
Chapter 8. Mutual Mate Choice
8.2. Reciprocal preferences
8.3. Social promiscuity and mutual mate choice
8.4. Pairing decisions: finding a social mate
8.6. Mate choice in hermaphrodites
Chapter 9. Variation in Preferences and Choices: General Considerations
9.4. Covariates of preference variation
9.5. Same-sex sexual behavior
Chapter 10. Variation I: Genetics
10.2. Interspecific genetic differences
10.4. Genetic variation in natural populations
10.5. The genetic architecture of mating preferences
10.6. Functional characterization of preference genes
Chapter 11. Variation II: Biotic and Abiotic Environment
11.2. Context-sensitive effects
11.3. State-dependent preferences
11.4. Genotype-by-environment interactions
Chapter 12. Variation III: Social Environment and Epigenetics
12.2. Social effects before birth: epigenetic and parental effects
12.3. Social status before and after maturity
12.4. Early learning: impacts on preferences
12.5. Mechanisms of early learning
12.6. Variation in early learning
12.7. Social experience after sexual maturity
12.8. Nonindependent mate choice and copying
12.9. Genotype by environment revisited: the instinct to learn
12.11. Additional reading
PART 2. ORIGINS, EVOLUTION, AND CONSEQUENCES
Chapter 13. Origins and Histories of Mating Preferences: Chooser Biases
13.2. Preferences have histories
13.4. Biases from non-choice functions
13.5. Novel responses of preference mechanisms
13.6. Byproduct biases: novel biases shaped by current signals
Chapter 14. Selection on Mate Choice and Mating Preferences
14.2. Selection on preferences for courter traits
14.3. Evolution of choosiness and mate-sampling strategies
14.4. When to choose: pre- versus postmating
14.5. Evolution of plastic preferences
14.6. Constraints on preference evolution
14.7. Coercion and choice
Chapter 15. Dynamic Evolution of Preferences, Strategies, and Traits
15.2. Genetic covariance drives preference evolution: the Fisher-Lande-Kirkpatrick null model
15.3. Constraints on genetic covariance: (mis)alignment of preferences and traits
15.4. Adaptive coevolution
15.5. Mode of transmission and preference-trait coevolution
15.6. The limits of indirect selection
15.7. Mate choice in context: social and life history evolution
15.8. Compatibility and epistasis
15.9. Mate choice as an agent of trait evolution
15.10. Population-level consequences of mate choice
15.11. Coevolution of multiple traits and preferences
15.12. Synthesis: a unified view of preference evolution
15.13. Additional reading
Chapter 16. Mate Choice, Speciation, and Hybridization
16.2. Divergence of preferences among isolated populations
16.3. Divergence of preferences with secondary contact
16.4. Reinforcement and speciation with gene flow
16.5. Conspecific mate preference and intraspecific mate choice
16.6. Mate choice and genetic exchange
Chapter 17. Mate Choice and Human Exceptionalism
17.2. Social influences on human mating decisions
17.3. Variation in human mating preferences
17.4. Synthesis: integrating evolutionary and social-science approaches to human sexuality
Chapter 18. Conclusions: A Mate-Choice View of the World
18.1. The sweep of mate choice
18.2. From sexual selection to preference evolution
18.3. How we talk about mate choice
18.4. How we study mate choice
18.5. Four open questions about mate-choice mechanisms
18.6. Mate choice and total selection
18.7. Synthesis: mate choice and its consequences
Mate Choice
：The Evolution of Sexual Decision Making from Microbes to Humans
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