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Human Sperm Competition

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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

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Definition

Human Sperm Competition

The competition to fertilize a woman’s egg between sperm from two or more different men.

Introduction

Sperm competition was first studied in insects (Parker 1970), but was soon suspected to occur in other animals, including humans (Smith 1984). A series of publications (see Robin Baker and Mark Bellis: Pioneers of Research on Human Sperm Competition) claimed to have found evidence that confirmed this suspicion. These claims triggered a wave of opposition (see Opposition to human sperm competition).

Currently, authors are divided into three main groups. The first (e.g., Baker and Bellis 1995; Gallup et al. 2006) considers that sperm competition occurred sufficiently often in the human past to have been a major selective pressure on sexuality. The second (e.g., Dixson 2009; Larmuseau et al. 2016) proposes that human sperm competition happened rarely and has played either a minor or zero role in human evolution. The third (Marczyk and Shackelford 2010)...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biological Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    Robin Baker

  2. Cómpeta, Málaga, Spain

    Robin Baker

Authors
  1. Robin Baker
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Correspondence to Robin Baker .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

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

    Todd K. Shackelford

  2. Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Psychological Sciences, Kansas State University, 492 Bluemont Hall, Manhattan, KS, USA

    Gary L Brase

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© 2016 Springer International Publishing AG

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Baker, R. (2016). Human Sperm Competition. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1957-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1957-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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