The effect of individual state on the strength of mate choice in females and males

Abstract

Animals are thought to gain significant fitness benefits from choosing high-quality or compatible mates. However, there is large within-species variation in how choosy individuals are during mating. This may be because the costs and benefits of being choosy vary according to an individual’s state. To test this, I systematically searched for published data relating the strength of animal mate choice in both sexes to individual age, attractiveness, body size, physical condition, mating status, and parasite load. I performed a meta-analysis of 108 studies and 78 animal species to quantify how the strength of mate choice varies according to individual state. In line with the predictions of sexual selection theory, I find that females are significantly choosier when they are large and have a low parasite load, thus supporting the premise that the expression of female mate choice is dependent on the costs and benefits of being choosy. However, female choice was not influenced by female age, attractiveness, physical condition, or mating status. Attractive males were significantly choosier than unattractive males, but male mate choice was not influenced by male age, body size, physical condition, mating status, or parasite load. However, this dataset was limited by a small sample size, and the overall correlation between individual state and the strength of mate choice was similar for both sexes. Nevertheless, in both males and females individual state explained only a small amount of variation in the strength of mate choice.

Male boldness and female parental care predict reproductive success in a bi-parental cichlid, the rainbow krib (Pelvicachromis pulcher)

“…Males expressing lower boldness, on the other hand, may compensate for the lower output per reproductive event by realizing more mating opportunities. A recent meta-analysis supports this hypothesis by showing that attractive males are choosier than unattractive males (attractiveness being defined as traits that signal mate quality) (Dougherty, 2023). If the proposed reproductive strategies (bold males produce few but large broods and less bold males produce many but small broods) yield equal fitness outcomes, this could help maintain among-individual variation in male boldness.…”

Meta‐analytical evidence that males prefer virgin females

“…Awareness of these potential effects of male preference helps avoid over‐ or underestimating female preferences. However, two recent meta‐analyses found no evidence that virgin and mated females differ in their choosiness (Dougherty, 2023; Richardson & Zuk, 2022) suggesting an asymmetry in the effects of female mating status on male and female mate choice. Crucially, Richardson and Zuk (2022) found that the majority of studies of female mate choice use virgin females which, combined with the results of this study, suggests that male preferences for virgin females could be influencing our broader understanding of mate choice.…”

Synthesis of sexual selection: a systematic map of meta-analyses with bibliometric analysis

“…We planned to screen 10 more if at least half of the previous 10 contained relevant articles, but that was not the case for any language. Additionally, we manually included four studies that were not captured by our searches Aguiar Del Matto, 2018;Gómez-Llano et al, 2023;Dougherty, 2023). A pilot conducted for our pre-registration (see Pollo et al 2023) found that these searches retrieved relevant benchmark articles, ensuring that our searches were comprehensive.…”