Test 3B Flashcards
What is the gamete-size theory of why there are two sexes?
Larger gamete a lot fewer are able to produce but they are more stable
- favor small number of large, stable gamete than small, weak ones
What did Richard Dawkins call the two sexes or mating types that emerge in the transition from isogamy to anisogamy?
the Battle of the Sexes.
Isogamy: What general kind of reproductive strategy does this pursue?
sexual reproduction, but no specialized sexes
- sexual reproduction by the fusion of similar gametes.
Anisogamy: What general kind of reproductive strategy does this pursue?
if each partner in a mating must be of a distinct specialized sex, then the species is said to practice anisogamy
- sexual reproduction by the fusion of dissimilar gametes.
Why is the sex ratio nearly 50-50 in almost all species?
Sex ratio must stay close to 50-50 because members of the rarer sex must average more offspring. It thus becomes advantageous to produce more offspring of the rarer sex, which naturally leads to the elimination of any original imbalance.
- The combination of the male tendency to pursue mating opportunities and the fixed 50-50 sex ratio means that males in most species are subject to sexual selection: a special kind of natural selection that favors traits leading to mating success.
That is, if the population is initially nearly entirely female, what will happen to the frequency of a mutation that causes its bearers to produce only male offspring, under natural selection alone?
.
What is sexual selection?
Competition for access to females often leads to male-limited adaptations specifically for mating. The selection that leads to such adaptations is called sexual selection.
Which sex is typically modified by sexual selection to become larger, more aggressive, better armed, and more scrutinized for physical appearance?
Males
How does Homo sapiens deviate from the typical pattern and why?
.
What is the trait Sexual Commitment (also called sociosexuality)?
devoted, loving, faithful, monogamous vs. polygamous, promiscuous, loose, unfaithful
What did the study of Schmitt (2005) find to be true about Sexual Commitment in all 48 countries surveyed?
Across all 48 countries in one cross-cultural study, women self-reported higher Sexual Commitment than men by ~0.75 SDs (Schmitt, 2005).
- Again, this finding shows that humans conform to the typical animal pattern: the male sex is the one that is more interested in mating opportunities with a variety of partners.
Richard Dawkins’s “Battle of the Sexes.”: What principle does this model use to explain the persistence of individual differences in traits related to Sexual Commitment?
Evolutionary game theory as a possible explanation for the maintenance of genetic diversity in certain personality traits.
- Dawkins (1976) uses evolutionary game theory to explain the maintenance of different sexual behaviors. He calls his game “the Battle of the Sexes.”
Is there any evidence in humans of polymorphic sites in the genome affecting sexual behavior?
The actual polymorphic sites in the human genome affecting sexual behavior are starting to be identified.
- In modern Western societies, early initiation of sexual intercourse is genetically correlated with more total sex partners, earlier age at first birth, and more total children
What is a rough sketch or definition of religion?
- Belief in nonphysical agents
- Ritual practices associated with these agents
- Moral intuitions and understandings connected to these agents
- Specific forms of experience intended to bring about proximity to nonphysical agents or communication with them
- Ethnic/national affiliation and formation of group identity centered on these agents
What basic human capacities give rise to religious belief as a byproduct, according to the evolutionary theory of religion?
Treat religion as a byproduct of other capacities (e.g., agency detection) that improved fitness in our evolutionary past.
- nature is minickede in music
- This means that if natural selection could have installed these capacities in the human mind without also producing religious belief, our species would be just as well adapted.
- Evolutionists call specific targets of natural selection adaptations. Authors such as Boyer and Atran thus believe that religion, as a byproduct, is not an adaptation.
