Assortative mating confirmed: Couples align in physical attractiveness
Recent research found that people accurately assess their own attractiveness, romantic partners tend to match in physical attractiveness, and longer relationships strengthen this alignment, highlighting the role of assortative mating in romantic pairings.
Published ahead of print!
#AssortativeMating in an Ecological Context: Effects of
#MateChoice Errors and Relative
#Species Abundance on the Frequency and Asymmetry of
#Hybridization by Qvarnström et al.
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/722156
Assortative Mating in an Ecological Context: Effects of Mate Choice Errors and Relative Species Abundance on the Frequency and Asymmetry of Hybridization | The American Naturalist
Abstract The frequency and asymmetry of mixed-species mating set the initial stage for the ecological and evolutionary implications of hybridization. How such patterns of mixed-species mating, in turn, are influenced by the combination of mate choice errors and relative species abundance remains largely unknown. We develop a mathematical model that generates predictions for how relative species abundances and mate choice errors affect hybridization patterns. When mate choice errors are small (<5%), the highest frequency of hybridization occurs when one of the hybridizing species is at low abundance, but when mate choice errors are high (>5%), the highest hybridization frequency occurs when species occur in equal proportions. Furthermore, females of the less abundant species are overrepresented in mixed-species matings. We compare our theoretical predictions with empirical data on naturally hybridizing Ficedula flycatchers and find that hybridization is highest when the two species occur in equal abundance, implying rather high mate choice errors. We discuss ecological and evolutionary implications of our findings and encourage future work on hybrid zone dynamics that take demographic aspects, such as relative species abundance, into account.
PsyPost
American Naturalist