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Nonhuman Sexual Conflict

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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science
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Synonyms

Intersexual competition; Opposing reproductive goals; Postcopulatory conflict; Precopulatory conflict

Definition

Nonhuman sexual conflict refers to any type of conflict that arises between members of the animal kingdom as the result of male and female reproductive interests being at odds with one another.

Introduction

In much of the animal kingdom, mating is not a cooperative process. Instead, it is marked by conflict and arms races between males and females to achieve their opposing reproductive goals (Parker 1979). Such conflict can be manifested in many forms, but they fall into two broad categories: precopulatory conflict and postcopulatory conflict (Parker 2006). The following sections provide brief overviews of the most commonly studied forms of conflict in nonhuman species under these two categories.

Precopulatory Conflict

In general, precopulatory conflict is centered around identification of potential mates before any DNA has been exchanged (Parker 2006). Typically,...

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Correspondence to Tara DeLecce .

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DeLecce, T. (2018). Nonhuman Sexual Conflict. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3078-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3078-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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