![]() In the current conceptual analysis, we delve into the various evolutionary processes that purportedly shape mate preferences, including Fisherian selection, sensory biases, good genes, and Zahavian handicaps. The “Wallacean approach” has been favored in theorizing and research in evolutionary psychology for decades, but evolutionary biologists have begun to take seriously Darwin’s original stance on preferential mate choice that was first articulated in The Descent of Man (1871). Darwin believed that some traits could become attractive for nonfunctional reasons, whereas Wallace argued that traits primarily become attractive because they honestly advertise phenotypic quality, such as vigor and viability. However, they proposed competing ideas regarding the action of intersexual selection and what drives the evolution of esthetic appreciation and preferential mate choice in humans and non-human animals. We then consider how the implications of the LK null model can help to shift theoretical assumptions and guide future work in evolutionary psychology on intersexual selection.īoth Darwin and Wallace agreed that sexual selection involves competition between same-sex conspecifics for access to reproductive opportunities (i.e., intrasexual competition Miller, 1998 Hoquet and Levandowsky, 2015). In the current conceptual analysis, we discuss the potential of Prum’s Lande-Kirkpatrick (LK) null model of sexual selection to help make sense of some of the mixed evidence regarding the links between attractive traits and purported markers of phenotypic and genetic condition. ![]() ![]() This is despite some informative reviews on the topic in evolutionary psychology. In doing so, Darwin’s esthetic perspective originally articulated in The Descent of Man and alternative models of sexual selection (e.g., Fisherian runaway), are given less consideration. In this way, evolutionary psychologists more often espouse Alfred Russel Wallaces’ utilitarian viewpoint that traits become attractive because they honestly signal vigor and vitality, which gives priority to natural selection. Human Evolution Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Nipissing University, North Bay, ON, Canadaĭominant theorizing and research surrounding the operation of intersexual selection in evolutionary psychology tends to be guided by an adaptationist framework and aligned with models of sexual selection involving direct benefits (e.g., parental care) and indirect “good gene” and condition-dependent benefits.
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