Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Experiment Videos

Sexual selection for moral virtues.

Geoffrey F Miller1

  • 1Psychology Department, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA. GFMILLER@UNM.EDU

The Quarterly Review of Biology
|June 23, 2007
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

How Do People Maintain Consensual Non-Monogamy? An International Development and Validation of the Multiple Relationships Maintenance Scale.

Archives of sexual behavior·2026
Same author

Benefits of hereditarian insights for mate choice and parenting.

The Behavioral and brain sciences·2023
Same author

Do Some Students Need Special Protection From Research on Sex and Trauma? New Evidence for Young Adult Resilience in "Sensitive Topics" Research.

Journal of sex research·2016
Same author

Testing the Controversy : An Empirical Examination of Adaptationists' Attitudes Toward Politics and Science.

Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.)·2015
Same author

Women's fertility across the cycle increases the short-term attractiveness of creative intelligence.

Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.)·2015
Same author

Sex Differences in Detecting Sexual Infidelity : Results of a Maximum Likelihood Method for Analyzing the Sensitivity of Sex Differences to Underreporting.

Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.)·2015
Same journal

THE EXPOSOME IN HUMAN EVOLUTION: FROM DUST TO DIESEL.

The Quarterly review of biology·2020
Same journal

PRINCIPLES AND PATTERNS OF BAT MOVEMENTS: FROM AERODYNAMICS TO ECOLOGY.

The Quarterly review of biology·2018
Same journal

Review of Methods in Enzymology Volumes 551 and 552 Circadian Rhythms and Biological Clocks, Part A and B Edited by Amita Sehgal.

The Quarterly review of biology·2018
Same journal

Competition for vitamin B1 (thiamin) structures numerous ecological interactions.

The Quarterly review of biology·2018
Same journal

New Weapons in the Toad Toolkit: A Review of Methods to Control and Mitigate the Biodiversity Impacts of Invasive Cane Toads (Rhinella Marina).

The Quarterly review of biology·2018
Same journal

Landscape Demography: Population Change and its Drivers Across Spatial Scales.

The Quarterly review of biology·2018
See all related articles

Human moral virtues may have evolved through sexual selection, with traits like kindness and intelligence advertised to potential mates. This sexual attractiveness theory offers new insights into morality's evolutionary origins.

Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary Psychology
  • Behavioral Ecology
  • Moral Philosophy

Background:

  • Traditional moral evolution theories focus on kinship, reciprocity, and group selection.
  • Charles Darwin proposed that sexual attractiveness plays a role in human morality.
  • Recent research integrates mate choice, person perception, and virtue ethics.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To update Darwin's theory on sexual attractiveness and human morality.
  • To integrate diverse research fields to explain the evolution of moral virtues.
  • To propose a comprehensive framework for understanding morality's adaptive functions.

Main Methods:

  • Review and synthesis of research on sexual selection and mate choice.
  • Integration of findings from person perception, individual differences, and costly signaling.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Application of virtue ethics principles to evolutionary psychology.

    • Main Results:

    • Human virtues, including kindness, fidelity, and intelligence, may have evolved via mutual mate choice.
    • These virtues serve to signal genetic quality, parenting abilities, and desirable partner traits.
    • The theory encompasses both explicitly moral and quasi-moral traits.

    Conclusions:

    • Sexual attractiveness is a significant, underappreciated factor in the evolution of human morality.
    • This evolutionary perspective generates numerous testable predictions about moral traits.
    • Understanding morality through sexual selection offers a novel lens on human nature.