Assortative mating and the evolution of desirability covariation

Conroy‐Beam, Daniel; Roney, James R.; Lukaszewski, Aaron W.; Buss, David M.; Asao, Kelly; Sorokowska, Agnieszka; Sorokowski, Piotr; Aavik, Toivo; Akello, Grace; Alhabahba, Mohammad Madallh; Alm, Charlotte; Amjad, Naumana; Anjum, Afifa; Atama, Chiemezie S.; Duyar, Derya Atamtürk; Ayebare, Richard; Batres, Carlota; Bendixen, Mons; Bensafia, Aicha; Bertoni, Anna Marta Maria; Bizumić, Boris; Boussena, Mahmoud; Butovskaya, Marina L.; Can, Seda; Cantarero, Katarzyna; Carrier, Antonin; Çetinkaya, Hakan; Croy, Ilona; Cueto, Rosa María; Czub, Marcin; Donato, Silvia; Dronova, Daria; Dural, Seda; Duyar, İzzet; Ertuğrul, Berna; Espinosa, Agustín; Estevan, Ignacio; Esteves, Carla Sofia; Fang, Luxi; Frąckowiak, Tomasz; Garduño, Jorge Contreras; González, Karina Ugalde; Guemaz, Farida; Gyuris, Petra; Haľamová, Mária; Herak, Iskra; Horvat, Marina; Hromatko, Ivana; Hui, Chin Ming; Iafrate, Raffaella; Jaafar, Jas Laile Suzana Binti; Jiang, Feng; Kafetsios, Konstantinos; Kavčič, Tina; Kennair, Leif Edward Ottesen; Kervyn, Nicolas; Ha, Trương Thi Khanh; Khilji, Imran Ahmed; Köbis, Nils; Lan, Hoang Moc; Láng, András; Lennard, Georgina R.; León, Ernesto de; Lindholm, Torun; Linh, Trinh Thi; Lopez, Giulia; Luot, Nguyen Van; Mailhos, Álvaro; Manesi, Zoi; Martínez, Rocío; McKerchar, Sarah L.; Meskó, Norbert; Misra, Girishwar; Monaghan, Conal; Mora, Emanuel C.; Moya-Garófano, Alba; Musil, Bojan; Natividade, Jean Carlos; Niemczyk, Agnieszka; Nizharadze, George; Oberzaucher, Elisabeth; Oleszkiewicz, Anna; Fauzee, Mohd Sofian Omar; Onyishi, Ike E.; Özener, Barış; Pagani, Ariela Francesca; Pakalniškienė, Vilmantė; Parise, Miriam; Pazhoohi, Farid; Pisanski, Annette; Pisanski, Katarzyna; Ponciano, Edna Lúcia Tinoco; Popa, Camelia; Prokop, Pavol; Rizwan, Muhammad; Sainz, Mario; Salkičević, Svjetlana; Sargautytė, Rūta; Sarmány-Schuller, Ivan; Schmehl, Susanne; Sharad, Shivantika; Siddiqui, Razi Sultan; Simonetti, Franco; Stoyanova, Stanislava; Tadinac, Meri; Varella, Marco Antônio Corrêa; Vauclair, Christin‐Melanie; Vega, Luis Diego; Widarini, Dwi Ajeng; Gyesook, Yoo; Zaťková, Marta; Zupančič, Maja

doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2019.06.003

Cited by 43 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Confirming our first prediction, the higher the level of a characteristic in the description of a stimulus male, the better the correspondent features were rated for their probable partner. These findings indicate that positive assortative mating is expected by our participants, similar to previous studies (Glicksohn and Golan, 2001 ; Jepsen and Jepsen, 2002 ; Silventoinen et al, 2003 ; Watson et al, 2004 ; Miller, 2007 ; Speakman et al, 2007 ; Castro et al, 2018 ; Conroy-Beam et al, 2019 ). The correspondence between the traits of the men and their partners suggests that high-quality individuals are expected to acquire high-quality partners, a prediction derived directly from the biological market perspective (Noë, 2017 ).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…This finding suggests that individuals are assessed globally and that their mating value may be the result of the interactions of their characteristics, rather than the sum of the attributes. According to Conroy-Beam et al ( 2019 ) in a context in which multiple preferences contribute to mate selection, assortative mating may have produced a specific pattern of desirability covariation in our species, thus a person who is desirable as a mate along any one preferred dimension tends to be desirable across all other dimensions. Secondly, the participant ratings showed that men of high social status were expected to be paired with partners having greater sociability, agreeableness, and physical quality (attractive face, body, and good health).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…In romantic relationships, men and women seek social alliance and reproductive opportunities, compete within their own gender-class over access to high-quality partners, and display their more attractive characteristics. Couples emerge from the process of mutually evaluating the characteristics of potential partners (Pawlowski, 2000 ; Conroy-Beam et al, 2019 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Male Mating Expectations in Brazilian and American Samples

et al. 2021

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This study aims to investigate assortative mating based on mate value from male perspective. Male participants (132 Brazilian and 106 American) evaluated hypothetical “stimulus” males described in terms of physical attractiveness, social skills, and social status (each varied in high or low levels). Participants rated each stimulus and each stimulus' preferred mating partner on nine traits. The results showed that (1) positive assortative mating was expected in romantic relationships; (2) the stimulus ratings did not vary independently, suggesting that mate value is the result of the interaction of the characteristics of individuals; and (3) that participants expected physically attractive and healthier female partners to pair with high-status male stimuli. The American and Brazilian mating expectations were similar, minor differences indicate that Brazilian participants considered men with high levels of social skills to be more ambitious and intelligent; American participants expected men of high status to be healthier; Brazilians expect men of high status to have more attractive faces, while Americans expected these men to possess more attractive bodies; and Brazilian participants assigned more attractive bodies to men of lower status. These differences reflect the influence of economic and cultural factors on the local environment. The study contributes to the understanding of the construction of market value and reveals that male expectations are in line with human mating preferences. The investigation of mating expectations can be a rich approach to investigate socio-cultural aspects that are related to mating in different cultures

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Male Mating Expectations in Brazilian and American Samples

et al. 2021

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“…Hence, male behavior is under the hypothesis of a state‐dependent preference for mate fitness. This implies the occurrence of an assortative mating preference in males but not females of T. molitor , unlike some other species, in which the same strategy has been found in both genders (Conroy‐Beam et al., 2019; Jiang et al., 2013; Robinson et al., 2017).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

Interactions between oxidative stress and attractiveness to mates and individual mate choice in the beetle Tenebrio molitor

et al. 2020

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Oxygen consumption is a double-edged sword for organisms. Whereas it is key to the production of energy, it gives rise to toxic molecules such as hydroxyl radicals that can lead to death if accumulated in excess (Abele, 2002; Silva et al., 2010). Under certain conditions, the generation of high levels of toxic oxygen (reactive oxygen species, ROS) or nitrogen (reactive nitrogen species, RNS) can overcome the endogenous antioxidant capacity and cause oxidative stress. This in turn may trigger oxidative damage to proteins, lipids, and DNA, resulting in the deterioration of cells and tissues (Costantini, 2014; Garratt & Brooks, 2012; Pamplona & Costantini, 2011). Hence, avoiding damage to biomolecules by controlling pro-oxidant production is an essential aspect of the health and survival of animals (Garratt & Brooks, 2012). Given the importance of oxidative stress, females would prefer males exhibiting sexual traits that honestly portray their oxidative stress status (Garratt & Brooks, 2012; Metcalfe & Alonso-Alvarez, 2010; von Schantz et al., 1999). This hypothesis predicts that females would prefer males with elaborate sexual signals, which, in turn, are resistant to oxidative stress, compared with males with underdeveloped sexual signals and confronting oxidative stress. This hypothesis has been tested mainly with vertebrate models (Martínez-Lendech et al., 2018) and with a focus limited to visually perceived characteristics (Garratt & Brooks, 2012). Hence, it is necessary to determine in invertebrates whether sexual traits other than visual signals could be an indicator of the oxidative stress status of males.

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“…This homogamy could be the evolutionary process promoting trait covariation (cf. Štěrbová and Valentova, 2012;Varella et al, 2012;Štěrbová et al, 2017;Conroy-Beam et al, 2019;Nishi et al, 2020) between the eveningness chronotype and the constellation of nocturnal psychobehavioral activities. For instance, behavioral genetic evidence has shown that 80% of the positive relationship between eveningness chronotype and externalizing behaviors (i.e., aggression and rule-breaking behavior) is accounted for by shared genetic influences between both tendencies, i.e., chronotype and antisocial tendencies (Barclay et al, 2011).…”

Section: Sexual Selection For Eveningness and Fast Life History Stratmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 Pandemic on Fire: Evolved Propensities for Nocturnal Activities as a Liability Against Epidemiological Control

et al. 2021

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Humans have been using fire for hundreds of millennia, creating an ancestral expansion toward the nocturnal niche. The new adaptive challenges faced at night were recurrent enough to amplify existing psychological variation in our species. Night-time is dangerous and mysterious, so it selects for individuals with higher tendencies for paranoia, risk-taking, and sociability (because of security in numbers). During night-time, individuals are generally tired and show decreased self-control and increased impulsive behaviors. The lower visibility during night-time favors the partial concealment of identity and opens more opportunities for disinhibition of self-interested behaviors. Indeed, individuals with an evening-oriented chronotype are more paranoid, risk-taking, extraverted, impulsive, promiscuous, and have higher antisocial personality traits. However, under some circumstances, such as respiratory pandemics, the psychobehavioral traits favored by the nocturnal niche might be counter-productive, increasing contagion rates of a disease that can evade the behavioral immune system because its disease cues are often nonexistent or mild. The eveningness epidemiological liability hypothesis presented here suggests that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the evening-oriented psychobehavioral profile can have collectively harmful consequences: there is a clash of core tendencies between the nocturnal chronotype and the recent viral transmission-mitigating safety guidelines and rules. The pandemic safety protocols disrupt much normal social activity, particularly at night when making new social contacts is desired. The SARS-CoV-2 virus is contagious even in presymptomatic and asymptomatic individuals, which enables it to mostly evade our evolved contagious disease avoidance mechanisms. A growing body of research has indirectly shown that individual traits interfering with social distancing and anti-contagion measures are related to those of the nocturnal chronotype. Indeed, some of the social contexts that have been identified as superspreading events occur at night, such as in restaurants, bars, and nightclubs. Furthermore, nocturnal environmental conditions favor the survival of the SARS-CoV-2 virus much longer than daytime conditions. We compare the eveningness epidemiological liability hypothesis with other factors related to non-compliance with pandemic safety protocols, namely sex, age, and life history. Although there is not yet a direct link between the nocturnal chronotype and non-compliance with pandemic safety protocols, security measures and future empirical research should take this crucial evolutionary mismatch and adaptive metaproblem into account, and focus on how to avoid nocturnal individuals becoming superspreaders, offering secure alternatives for nocturnal social activities.

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Assortative mating and the evolution of desirability covariation

Cited by 43 publications

References 21 publications

Male Mating Expectations in Brazilian and American Samples

Male Mating Expectations in Brazilian and American Samples

Interactions between oxidative stress and attractiveness to mates and individual mate choice in the beetle Tenebrio molitor

COVID-19 Pandemic on Fire: Evolved Propensities for Nocturnal Activities as a Liability Against Epidemiological Control

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