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Healthy Mate Hypothesis

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior

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Synonym

Good genes hypothesis

Definition

The healthy mate hypothesis states that mate choice is based on secondary sexual characteristics that act as a proxy for assessing the potential mate’s overall health and parasite resistance.

Introduction

Sexual selection works on the premise that, out of a pool of potential mates, only few succeed to mate. Usually, the member of the sex that invests more into reproduction undergoes some form of assessment of the potential mate in order to maximize their reproductive success, which in turn creates a selection pressure. Maybe one of the most famous examples of sexual selection is that of the peacock and the peahen. The long, elaborate tail of the peacock has played a role in Darwin’s development of sexual selection theory (Darwin 1859, 1871). Darwin could not explain this attribute with natural selection, as the extravagant tails of peacocks do not appear to be a form of adaptation for survival. Sexual selection, however, provides an explanation...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Monika Siekelova

Authors
  1. Monika Siekelova
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Correspondence to Monika Siekelova .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University , Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Jennifer Vonk

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University Department of Psychology, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Constance Dubuc

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Siekelova, M. (2018). Healthy Mate Hypothesis. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_299-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_299-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47829-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-47829-6

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