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The principle of natural selection posits that organisms better adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce. This principle is closely intertwined with mating preferences, a key aspect of sexual selection, which evolutionary psychologists believe is driven by instincts to propagate one's genes. Such instincts significantly influence mating behaviors and preferences between genders.
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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 31, 2025

Visually Sexing Loggerhead Shrike Lanius Ludovicianus Using Plumage Coloration and Pattern
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Ecological Sex Ratios and Human Mating.

Jon K Maner1, Joshua M Ackerman2

  • 1Department of Psychology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA.

Trends in Cognitive Sciences
|January 2, 2020
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Imbalanced sex ratios significantly impact societal dynamics, influencing relationship patterns and behaviors like risk-taking. These effects are categorized into intersexual choice and intrasexual competition, highlighting the importance of population sex distribution.

Keywords:
cognitioncompetitionevolutionpsychologyrelationshipssexuality

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Area of Science:

  • Evolutionary biology
  • Sociology
  • Behavioral ecology

Background:

  • Sex ratios, the relative number of males and females in a population, are fundamental demographic factors.
  • Imbalances in sex ratios can shape social structures and individual behaviors within an ecological context.
  • Previous research has explored various consequences of skewed sex ratios on social interactions.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To systematically organize the interpersonal processes influenced by imbalanced sex ratios.
  • To categorize these processes into distinct focal effects.
  • To provide a framework for understanding the broad societal impacts of sex ratio variations.

Main Methods:

  • Literature review and synthesis of existing research on sex ratios and social behavior.
  • Conceptual organization of interpersonal processes into two main categories.
  • Analysis of how different types of sex ratio imbalances manifest in social dynamics.

Main Results:

  • Identified two primary categories of effects stemming from imbalanced sex ratios: intersexual choice and intrasexual competition.
  • Intersexual choice encompasses mate selection dynamics influenced by the availability of partners.
  • Intrasexual competition involves direct or indirect contests between members of the same sex for access to mates or resources.

Conclusions:

  • Sex ratio dynamics are critical determinants of social behavior and relationship outcomes.
  • Understanding intersexual choice and intrasexual competition provides key insights into the effects of skewed sex ratios.
  • This organizational framework aids in predicting and analyzing societal responses to varying population sex distributions.