Psychology 3228 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Robert Trivers, Courtship Display, Fisherian Runaway

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 3228
• Professor: Caroline Strang

Document Summary

Darwin argued that features which helped you to breed might paradoxically sometimes be selected for, even up to the point of shortening your life. Sexual selection applies to those characteristics that provide individuals with advantages in gaining access to mates. A number of surveys of human mate preference, for example, demonstrate how men from a wide range of cultures find the classic hour-glass shape of young women particularly attractive. Intrasexual selection consists of individuals competing with members of their own sex for access to the opposite sex. In contrast, intersexual selection consists of members of one sex attempting to impress members of the other. Intrasexual selection is generally regarded as being responsible for males developing weapons to compete with each other such as large teeth and horns, greater musculature and a lower threshold for aggression when compared to their female counterparts.