Journal of Evolutionary Psychology
Volume/Issue:
Volume 9: Issue 3
A mathematical analysis of the evolution of human mate choice traits: Implications for evolutionary psychologists
Author:
Ned Kock Texas A&M International University, Laredo, USA
Division of International Bus. and Tech. Studies, Texas A&M International University, 5201 University Boulevard, Laredo, TX, 78041, USA

Search for other papers by Ned Kock in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed Close
Pages:
219–247
Online Publication Date:
01 Sep 2011
Publication Date:
01 Sep 2011
Article Category:
Research Article
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1556/jep.9.2011.3.1
Keywords:
Price equation; path modeling; path analysis; sexual selection; mate choice; costly traits; mental traits; mental disorders; brain evolution
Restricted access

Abstract

Sexually reproducing organisms often rely on various traits to judge the attractiveness of potential mates. Many mate choice preferences and traits have evolved through selection by those organisms’ ancestors, with traits having been either costly (detrimental to survival) or noncostly in the environment of their evolutionary adaptation. A general mathematical analysis of the evolution of traits used in mate choice is presented. The analysis builds on a combination of Price's covariance equation and Wright's method of path analysis, and includes a set of Monte Carlo simulations. The usefulness of the mathematical analysis is demonstrated through the development of a small but important set of hypotheses and implications for the human species: (1) costly traits used in mate choice by humans should be generally less common and more attractive to the other sex than non-costly traits; (2) costly traits should be disproportionately less common in human females than in males; and (3) some harmful human mental disorders, such as schizophrenia, may have co-evolved as costs of attractive mental traits. It is also shown that similar analyses can be easily employed by evolutionary psychologists to theorize about the evolution of complex mate choice traits, and to test the resulting theories with modern humans through the method of path analysis.

  • D.J. Anderson 1990 On the evolution of human brood size Evolution 44 2 438 440.

  • A.J. Bateman 1948 Intra-sexual selection in Drosophila Heredity 2 3 349 368.

  • N.T. Boaz A.J. Almquist 2001 Biological Anthropology: A Synthetic Approach to Human Evolution Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River, NJ.

  • D.M. Buss 1995 The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating Basic Books New York, NY.

  • D.M. Buss 1999 Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind Allyn & Bacon Needham Heights, MA.

  • J. Cartwright 2000 Evolution and Human Behavior: Darwinian Perspectives on Human Nature The MIT Press Cambridge, MA.

  • W.W. Chin 2001 PLS-Graph User's Guide Soft Modeling Inc Houston, TX.

  • D.L. Cohen J. Belsky 2008 Individual differences in female mate preferences as a function of attachment and hypothetical ecological conditions Journal of Evolutionary Psychology 6 1 25 42.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • B. Crespi 2006 The natural selection of psychosis Behavioral and Brain Sciences 29 4 410 411.

  • C.R. Darwin 1871 The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex John Murray London, England.

  • O.D. Duncan 1966 Path analysis: Sociological examples The American Journal of Sociology 72 1 1 16.

  • B. Fink K. Grammer R. Thornhill 2001 Human (Homo sapiens) facial attractiveness in relation to skin texture and color Journal of Comparative Psychology 115 1 92 99.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • R.A. Fisher 1930 The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection Oxford University Press Oxford, England.

  • J.A. Fletcher M. Zwick 2007 The evolution of altruism: Game theory in multilevel selection and inclusive fitness Journal of Theoretical Biology 245 1 26 36.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • C.W. Fox J.B. Wolf 2006 Evolutionary Genetics: Concepts and Case Studies Oxford University Press New York, NY.

  • S.A. Frank 1995 George Price's contributions to evolutionary genetics Journal of Theoretical Biology 175 3 373 388.

  • S.A. Frank 1997 The design of adaptive systems: Optimal parameters for variation and selection in learning and development Journal of Theoretical Biology 184 1 31 39.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • A. Furnham V. Swami K. Shah 2006 Body weight, waist-to-hip ratio and breast size correlates of ratings of attractiveness and health Personality and Individual Differences 41 3 443 454.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • S.W. Gangestad R. Thornhill 2003 Facial masculinity and fluctuating asymmetry Evolution and Human Behavior 24 4 231 241.

  • J.H. Gillespie 2004 Population Genetics The Johns Hopkins University Press Baltimore, MD.

  • A. Grafen 1990 Biological signals as handicaps Journal of Theoretical Biology 144 4 517 546.

  • A. Grafen 2002 A first formal link between the Price Equation and an optimization program Journal of Theoretical Biology 217 1 75 91.

  • A. Grafen 2006 Optimization of inclusive fitness Journal of Theoretical Biology 238 3 541 563.

  • J.F. Hair W.C. Black B.J. Babin R.E. Anderson 2009 Multivariate Data Analysis Prentice Hall Upper Saddle River, NJ.

  • W.D. Hamilton M. Zuk 1982 Heritable true fitness and bright birds: A role for parasites? Science 218 4570 384 387.

  • D.L. Hartl A.G. Clark 2007 Principles of Population Genetics Sinauer Associates Sunderland, MA.

  • M. Haselton G.F. Miller 2006 Women's fertility across the cycle increases the short-term attractiveness of creative intelligence Human Nature 17 1 50 73.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • J. Henrich 2004 Cultural group selection, coevolutionary processes and large-scale cooperation Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization 53 1 3 35.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • K. Hill H. Kaplan 1999 Life history traits in humans: Theory and empirical studies Annual Review of Anthropology 28 1 397 430.

  • W. Iredale M. Van Vugt R. Dunbar 2008 Showing off in humans: Male generosity as a mating signal Evolutionary Psychology 6 3 386 392.

  • M. Keller G.F. Miller 2006 Which evolutionary genetic models best explain the persistence of common, harmful, heritable mental disorders? Behavioral and Brain Sciences 29 4 385 404.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • D.A. Kenny 1979 Correlation and Causation John Wiley & Sons. New York, NY.

  • R.B. Kline 1998 Principles and Practice of Structural Equation Modeling The Guilford Press New York, NY.

  • N. Kock 2010 WarpPLS 1.0 User Manual ScriptWarp Systems Laredo, Texas.

  • H. Kokko 1998 Good genes, old age and life history trade-offs Evolutionary Ecology 12 6 739 750.

  • H. Kokko R. Brooks J.M. Mcnamara A.I. Houston 2002 The sexual selection continuum Proceedings of the Royal Society of London: Biological Sciences 269 1498 1331 1340.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • R. Lande 1982 A quantitative genetic theory of life history evolution Ecology 63 3 607 615.

  • L. Lehmann L.F. Keller H. Kokko 2007 Mate choice evolution, dominance effects and the maintenance of genetic variation Journal of Theoretical Biology 244 2 282 295.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • E. Lieberman C. Hauert M. Nowak 2005 Evolutionary dynamics on graphs Nature 433 7023 312 316.

  • H.F. Lyle R.J. Sullivan 2007 Competitive status signaling in peer-to-peer file-sharing networks Evolutionary Psychology 5 2 363 382.

  • G.M. Maruyama 1998 Basics of Structural Equation Modeling Sage Publications Thousand Oaks, CA.

  • J. Maynard Smith 1971 What use is sex? Journal of Theoretical Biology 30 2 319 335.

  • J. Maynard Smith 1994 Must reliable signals always be costly? Animal Behaviour 47 5 1115 1120.

  • J. Maynard Smith 1998 Evolutionary Genetics Oxford University Press New York, NY.

  • J. Maynard Smith D. Harper 2003 Animal Signals Oxford University Press New York, NY.

  • R. Mcelreath R. Boyd 2007 Mathematical Models of Social Evolution: A Guide for the Perplexed The University of Chicago Press Chicago, IL.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • M. Millar 2010 Trait inferences about prospective mates: Effects of relationship length and social dominance Journal Journal of Evolutionary Psychology 8 3 245 259.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • G.F. Miller 2000 The Mating Mind: How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature Doubleday New York, NY.

  • G.F. Miller 2000 Sexual selection for indicators of intelligence G. Bock J. Goode K. Webb The Nature of Intelligence John Wiley & Sons New York, NY 260 275.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • G.F. Miller I. Tal 2007 Schizotypy versus intelligence and openness as predictors of creativity Schizophrenia Research 93 1 317 324.

  • R.O. Mueller 1996 Basic Principles of Structural Equation Modeling Springer New York, NY.

  • R.M. Nesse G.C. Williams 1994 Why We Get Sick: The New Science of Darwinian Medicine Random House New York, NY.

  • D. Nettle 2006 Reconciling the mutation-selection balance model with the schizotypycreativity connection Behavioral and Brain Sciences 29 4 418.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • D. Nettle 2006 Schizotypy and mental health amongst poets, visual artists, and mathematicians Journal of Research in Personality 40 6 876 890.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • T. O'Meara 2000 Introduction to Quadratic Forms Springer-Verlag New York, NY.

  • K.M. Page M.A. Nowak 2002 Unifying evolutionary dynamics Journal of Theoretical Biology 219 1 93 98.

  • M. Petrie T. Halliday C. Sanders 1991 Peahens prefer peacocks with elaborate trains Animal Behaviour 41 2 323 331.

  • G.R. Price 1970 Selection and covariance Nature 227 1 520 521.

  • A.C. Rencher 1998 Multivariate Statistical Inference and Applications John Wiley & Sons New York, NY.

  • S.H. Rice 2004 Evolutionary Theory: Mathematical and Conceptual Foundations Sinauer Associates Sunderland, MA.

  • G. Rhodes J. Chan L.A. Zebrowitz L.W. Simmons 2003 Does sexual dimorphism in human faces signal health? Proceedings of the Royal Society of London: Biology Letters 270 S1 S93 S95.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • C.P. Robert G. Casella 2005 Monte Carlo Statistical Methods Springer New York, NY.

  • R. Rosenthal R.L. Rosnow 1991 Essentials of Behavioral Research: Methods and Data Analysis McGraw Hill Boston, MA.

  • R.E. Schumacker R.G. Lomax 2004 A Beginner's Guide to Structural Equation Modeling Lawrence Erlbaum Mahwah, NJ.

  • T.K. Shackelford D.P. Schmitt D.M. Buss 2005 Universal dimensions of human mate preferences Personality and Individual Differences 39 2 447 458.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • D. Singh P.K. Randall 2007 Beauty is in the eye of the plastic surgeon: Waist-hip ratio (WHR) and women's attractiveness Personality and Individual Differences 43 2 329 340.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • R. Thornhill S.W. Gangestad 2006 Facial sexual dimorphism, developmental stability, and susceptibility to disease in men and women Evolution and Human Behavior 27 2 131 144.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • M. Van Veelen 2005 On the use of the Price Equation Journal of Theoretical Biology 237 4 412 426.

  • T.J. Wells A.K. Dunn M.J.T. Sergeant M.N.O. Davies 2009 Multiple signals in human mate selection: A review and framework for integrating facial and vocal signals Journal Journal of Evolutionary Psychology 7 2 111 139.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • E.O. Wilson 2000 Sociobiology: The New Synthesis Harvard University Press Cambridge, MA.

  • S. Wold J. Trygg A. Berglund H. Antti 2001 Some recent developments in PLS modeling Chemometrics and Intelligent Laboratory Systems 58 2 131 150.

    • Search Google Scholar
    • Export Citation

  • S. Wright 1934 The method of path coefficients The Annals of Mathematical Statistics 5 3 161 215.

  • S. Wright 1960 Path coefficients and path regressions: Alternative or complementary concepts? Biometrics 16 2 189 202.

  • A. Zahavi 1975 Mate selection—A selection for a handicap Journal of Theoretical Biology 53 1 205 214.

  • A. Zahavi 2003 Indirect selection and individual selection in sociobiology Animal Behavior 65 5 859 863.

  • A. Zahavi A. Zahavi 1997 The Handicap Principle: A Missing Piece of Darwin's Puzzle Oxford University Press Oxford, England.

  • Collapse
  • Expand
Cover Journal of Evolutionary Psychology
Journal of Evolutionary Psychology
Print ISSN:
1789-2082
Online ISSN:
2060-5587

Journal of Evolutionary Psychology 
Language English
Size  
Year of
Foundation		 2007 (2003)
Publication
Programme		 changed title
Volumes
per Year		  
Issues
per Year		  
Founder Akadémiai Kiadó
Founder's
Address		 H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245.
Publisher Akadémiai Kiadó
Publisher's
Address		 H-1117 Budapest, Hungary 1516 Budapest, PO Box 245.
Responsible
Publisher		 Chief Executive Officer, Akadémiai Kiadó
ISSN 1789-2082 (Print)
ISSN 2060-5587 (Online)

Monthly Content Usage

Abstract Views Full Text Views PDF Downloads
Apr 2024 45 0 0
May 2024 21 2 2
Jun 2024 25 0 0
Jul 2024 14 0 0
Aug 2024 43 0 0
Sep 2024 16 0 0
Oct 2024 22 0 0