Here's the abstract of a neat experiment in Animal Behaviour manipulating "mate value"/attractiveness in a bird species, and its effect on female choosiness. I haven't read it yet, but I thought you guys might find it interesting/relevant.
Variation in female choice of mates: condition influences selectivity
Nancy Tyler Burley
, a, 
and Valerie S. FosteraThe occurrence and significance of variation in apparent mate choice within populations are poorly understood. While one possible explanation for variation is that individuals differ in their mate preferences, an alternative possibility is that individuals vary in their mate selectivity or ‘choosiness’: that is, some individuals may be willing to accept less attractive mating partners than are others. This latter possibility is likely to result from bidirectional mate choice and differential mating access of high- versus low-quality mating partners. Here we altered the physical condition of female zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata castanotis, through modest trimming of their flight feathers to explore the possibility that individuals adjust selectivity in response to their own condition. We compared the selectivity of individuals with clipped versus intact wing feathers. Female finches spent less time associating with attractive males when their wings were clipped than when wings were intact. To ascertain whether their choices were influenced by the behaviour of stimulus males that perceived their altered status, we performed a companion experiment that measured male mate choice of females with clipped versus intact wings; no discrimination against clipped females was found. Collectively, these results indicate that a female's mate selectivity is dynamically adjusted based on her assessment of her own condition or mate-getting ability. Future studies that investigate the relationship between realized and ideal mate preferences are necessary to better understand preference functions and the genetic basis of mate preferences.
( Animal Behaviour
Volume 72, Issue 3 , September 2006, Pages 713-719)
6 comments:
Thanks for the heads up on this one. That is a cool study. And the same shit (e.g., female mate choice is based on their assessment of their own attractiveness or "mate-getting" ability)goes on in humans too. But mate choice and mate prefs studies in non-human animals are always so much cooler than those in humans. Too bad we can't (significantly) manipulate attractiveness in humans.
Yeah, exactly--it certainly goes on in humans, but I thought this was a good animal study demonstrating this precisely, providing further (suggestive) evidence for humans.
how appropriate that I finally took the time to read this abstract. Today in lab we discussed potential mate value trajectories in humans and how we might best go about assessing the future mate value of a potential partner (i.e. would it be relative to the individual's current mate value or what the individual perceives his/her own mate value will be at some point in the future). Thanks Emily for posting this abstract, it will help us with further forming this study. :)
oh and yes I agree Aaron...it's definitely too bad we can't really manipulate mate value in humans. I'd be all for running that kind of study.
Judy, mate value trajectories--interesting! I wonder if there are subtle sex differences in importance of, or in assessment abilities or something. For women it might make sense to be able to accurately assess a mate's future value (his ability to continue to be a good, investing father), but perhaps MV forecasting abilities are less important for a man looking for a (more currently) reproductively valuable partner. I guess you're probably suggesting that for men the mate value would be based on likelihood of future realization, and women's mate value relative to her current. Is that the sort of stuff y'all talked about?
Absolutely Emily! It was suggested that men should have no real reason to be good at predicting women's future mate value because all women's mate value goes down as age increases. Women on the other hand should be good at determining if a man's mate value is "on the way up" (as Sarah phrased it) or will stay stagnant or even potentially go down. And then she should try to mate accordingly (so if she sees herself as being equal to his future MV she might select him for a LTM).
We further discussed the potential for women to a have a "commitment expediting" mechanism and men to have a "commitment forestalling" mechanism that perhaps would be triggered at various life stages. So, for example, as a women reaches an age where her mate value will begin to drop tremendously (in modern times around mid-30s) she may become desperate in trying to secure a mate so she can produce offspring. On the other hand, men should have a mechanism that delays them from entering a LTM because they gain nothing...particularly from entering a LTM with a partner whose reproductive value is about to plummet.
So the whole discussion stemmed from a new project we were thinking of on mate value trajectories (Jaime and I) so I sure would appreciate any feedback!! Thanks.
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