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Explaining sex: contrast between social and sexual selection

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Darwin's [The Descent of Man (2nd Edn.) (1871)] theory of sexual selection has been expanded into a system of interlocking hypotheses to explain many features of sexual reproduction. It focusses on mating success and relies on processes featuring bad genes, selfishness, competition, conflict, coercion, ownership and deceit. Logical flaws and an absence of factual support challenge the sexual-selection system. An alternative explanatory system, social selection, focusses on offspring delivery and relies on processes featuring negotiation, teamwork and division of labor. The sexual-selection system and the social-selection system differ in their world views of nature.

Source: Biology of Sex Differences

DOI: 10.1186/s13293-025-00807-3

Author: Joan Roughgarden

Institutions: University of Hawaii System, Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, Stanford University

Language: English

Topic: Animal Behavior and Reproduction

Subfield: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

Field: Agricultural and Biological Sciences

Domain: Life Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $3,290

OpenAlex ID: W7117687482

FWCI: 1.871

Cites: 168

Cited by: 2

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