Remodeling male coercion and the evolution of sexual autonomy by mate choice.

ABSTRACT: Models of sexual conflict over mating, including conflict over indirect benefits of mate choice, have generally presumed that female resistance to male coercion must involve direct confrontation, which can lead to sexually antagonistic coevolutionary arms-races. We built a quantitative model examining the largely ignored possibility that females may evolve new, additional mate preferences for new male traits that undermine male capacity to coerce. Thus, females may "remodel" the coercive capacity of the male phenotype in order to enhance their own sexual autonomy-a novel alternative mechanism by which females may avoid arms-races. We demonstrate that evolutionary "remodeling" is possible, in spite of costs to males, because females that prefer males with protective, autonomy-enhancing trai

SUBMITTER: Snow SS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10309969 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature