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Polygamy (Behavioral Ecology)

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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

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Synonyms

Multiple mating; Polyandry; Polygynandry; Polygyny

Definition

A mating system in which one male mates with multiple females, or one female mates with multiple males, or both males and females have multiple mates.

Polygamy and Parental Investment

The concept of polygamy is at the heart of the study of mating system evolution. How many mates an individual has is likely to have a large effect on the reproductive contribution that individuals make to the next generation. However, there is an important difference between males and females with respect to polygamy that is related to the definitional distinction between the sexes (Trivers 1972). Females are defined by their production of large, nutrient rich gametes (eggs), whereas males are defined by the production of tiny, abundant gametes (sperm). The result of this dichotomy is that males in many species can profit reproductively from mating with multiple females. Developing ideas initially explored by Bateman (1948) and...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, 27858, USA

    Kyle Summers

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  1. Kyle Summers
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Correspondence to Kyle Summers .

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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. University of Idaho, Moscow, ID, USA

    Russell Jackson

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Summers, K. (2017). Polygamy (Behavioral Ecology). In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3615-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3615-1

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