#sexualselection — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #sexualselection, aggregated by home.social.
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DATE: August 23, 2026 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Survival of the wittiest: How humor and cleverness shaped human evolution
URL: https://www.psypost.org/survival-of-the-wittiest-how-humor-and-cleverness-shaped-human-evolution/
A new theoretical paper suggests that human cognitive and linguistic evolution was driven by early humans’ ability to be clever and humorous, an idea dubbed the “survival of the wittiest.” The analysis argues that the earliest stages of grammar provided a platform for verbal competition and sexual selection, gradually replacing physical violence with verbal agility. The research was published in PNAS Nexus.
For decades, discussions of human evolution have revolved around two dominant ideas. The first is Charles Darwin’s original concept of the survival of the fittest, which is often narrowly interpreted as physical strength or health. The second is the more recent hypothesis of the survival of the friendliest. This newer idea proposes that humans evolved primarily through selection for prosocial behavior and cooperation, which allowed early humans to form alliances and outcompete other groups.
Wayne State University linguist Ljiljana Progovac authored the new paper to offer an alternative viewpoint. Progovac argues that physical fitness and friendliness fail to capture the unique role that language played in human development. Being physically strong or socially cooperative are traits shared with many other animals, including bonobos and other primates. These traits alone do not explain the rapid and unique expansion of human cognition.
According to Progovac, focusing entirely on friendliness misses the competitive nature of human interaction. Evolution involves both cooperation and ruthless competition. To fully understand how our ancestors evolved into modern humans, researchers must account for the biological advantage of eloquence, imagination, and the ability to outwit rivals. This perspective centers on sexual selection, where traits that make an individual attractive to mates are passed down through successive generations.
To build this argument, Progovac analyzed linguistic structures that represent the earliest stages of grammar. Language leaves no physical bones behind, so researchers must rely on a process called reverse engineering. By peeling back the complex layers of modern syntax, linguists can reconstruct the most foundational building blocks of language. These foundational structures are referred to as living fossils.
In modern languages, these fossils appear as simple two-word combinations consisting of one verb and one noun. Examples in English include words like “killjoy,” “crybaby,” “pickpocket,” and “scatterbrain.” These basic compounds do not rely on complex grammatical rules. They lack the structural layers required to distinguish between subjects and objects or to establish tense.
These simple word pairs are remarkably consistent across entirely different language families. Progovac notes that similar verb-noun compounds exist in languages ranging from Serbian to Berber to Twi. Historically, these basic constructions have been used to create highly vivid, metaphorical nicknames. Often, these nicknames are derogatory or humorous, describing a person based on a prominent action or physical trait.
Progovac proposes that as early humans developed these two-word abilities, a new form of social competition emerged. Individuals who could quickly invent clever, insulting, or amusing names had a distinct social advantage. They could demean rivals and impress potential mates without resorting to physical combat. This quick-wittedness represented an enormous cognitive leap, showing that early language was not just for sharing information but for social maneuvering.
The biological benefits of this verbal agility are still visible in human populations today. In many traditional oral societies across the globe, the most eloquent speakers hold the highest social status. Individuals who can manipulate words effectively gain access to political power and better reproductive success. The ability to charm a mate through humor and metaphorical language proved to be highly adaptive over time.
The paper also reviews experimental evidence from neuroimaging to support this evolutionary timeline. In a prior functional magnetic resonance imaging experiment, researchers tracked brain activity while participants read ancient verb-noun combinations compared to more modern, complex words. The older compounds evoked a more visceral reaction in the brain than modern words.
The experimenters found that processing the older, fossil-like compounds activated the right side of the fusiform gyrus in the brain. This specific brain region is directly involved in face perception and face recognition. Finding that the same brain area handles both face recognition and basic verb-noun processing supports the idea that the earliest grammar was closely tied to naming individuals and attaching linguistic labels to faces.
A related brain imaging experiment looked at how the brain processes simple sentences compared to hierarchical, modern sentences. The simpler sentences resulted in less activity in the Broca’s area and the basal ganglia. The basal ganglia are deep brain structures involved in motor control and learning.
Over the course of human evolution, the connections between the Broca’s area and the basal ganglia became much denser. The gradual mastery of more complex language likely drove the physical evolution of these brain networks. This aligns with genetic changes unique to humans and Neanderthals, including variations in the FOXP2 gene, which is associated with speech and language development.
By replacing physical fighting with verbal dueling, quick-wittedness played a direct role in reducing physical aggression among early humans. Humor and laughter act as natural stress antagonists, lowering cortisol levels in the body. This biological response connects the survival of the wittiest with the concept of human self-domestication. Over time, societies selected for individuals who could use words to defuse tension or assert dominance, leading to a species that prizes cognitive contests over lethal battles.
While this perspective offers a robust framework for understanding language origins, measuring the evolutionary impact of humor and wit relies heavily on reconstructing the past. Researchers must reverse-engineer modern languages and rely on brain imaging proxies, which cannot definitively prove how ancient ancestors behaved in their daily lives. Brain scans of modern humans only provide an approximation of ancient cognitive processes.
Future studies could test this hypothesis by examining how individual variations in cognitive conditions process these fossil grammars. By observing how brains with different neurological setups handle early grammatical structures, scientists can better map the exact neural pathways that allowed language to flourish.
The study, “Survival of the wittiest (not friendliest): The art and science behind human linguistic and cognitive evolution,” was authored by Ljiljana Progovac.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/survival-of-the-wittiest-how-humor-and-cleverness-shaped-human-evolution/
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #SurvivaloftheWittiest #HumorEvolution #LanguageOrigins #EarlyGrammar #VerbalCompetition #SexualSelection #Neuroimaging # FOXP2 #SocialManeuvering #EvolutionOfCognition
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DATE: August 10, 2026 at 06:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Who do teens crush on? A new study reveals the social math of adolescent attraction
An analysis of the Peers and Emergence of Adolescent Romance (PEAR) study data found that adolescents are more likely to be fancied if they have more friendship connections or are personally considered popular by a peer. Adolescents personally perceived as physically aggressive by specific peers were also more likely to be fancied by them. The paper was published in Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.
Adolescent romantic life begins long before the formation of an established relationship, through fantasies, brief encounters, and one-sided attractions known as crushes. Crushes are common during early adolescence and can play an important role in the development of romantic identity, self-concept, and sensitivity to peer evaluation.
Because they tend to be intense but unreciprocated, they allow young people to explore attraction without necessarily entering a formal relationship. These attractions usually develop within peer groups, where popularity, physical attractiveness, friendship ties, and social visibility shape who becomes noticed and desired.
Sexual selection theory suggests that adolescents differ in “mate value,” or the set of qualities that make someone more likely to attract romantic interest. Attraction may depend both on a person’s private, one-on-one evaluation of a peer and on the peer’s broader reputation within the group. This means that crushes are influenced not only by individual preferences but also by social status and collective judgments about who is attractive or desirable.
Study author Melissa González-Loyola and her colleagues investigated the factors associated with adolescent crush nominations, addressing the question of “who fancies whom?” More specifically, they investigated which adolescents are more likely to be the crushes of their peers, and who tends to nominate others as crushes. They also wanted to know how similarities or differences between adolescents relate to their patterns of romantic interest.
These authors analyzed data from the Peers and the Emergence of Adolescent Romance (PEAR) study, a survey of adolescents’ romantic and sexual relationships. This survey was conducted with students from a high school operating at four locations in a geographically isolated, semi-rural area in the northern Netherlands. This area is more ethnically and culturally homogenous than other parts of the Netherlands, with less than 5% of the population being non-Dutch.
Participants were 1,895 students of a high school (out of a total of 2,159 students at that high school). Just under 51% of them were girls. Their average age was 14.8 years.
Although the high school operated at four locations, the study treated them all as a single school network, as the study authors noted that students socialize and spend time together outside of class in their neighborhoods, often across locations. The survey presented the participating students with a list of all students from the school and asked them to nominate those they had a crush on (“Who do you fancy/have a crush on/would like to date…?”), popular peers, physically aggressive peers, relationally aggressive peers, physically attractive peers, and their best friends. Students also reported their age and gender, allowing authors to calculate similarities between students.
Results showed that 35% of students reported having at least one crush. Of those who nominated a crush, 55% nominated just one person, and 22% nominated two students. Nearly 39% of students were nominated as someone’s crush. Around 48% of those nominated as crushes were boys. Roughly 62% of students who were nominated as someone’s crush received one nomination (most often not reciprocated by the student they designated as their own crush!) and 22% received two nominations.
Study authors classified participants into isolates (those who neither nominated nor were nominated; 42%), those who were only nominated (22.7%), those who only nominated others (19.2%), and those who both nominated and were nominated (16.1%). Of the participants who reported crushes, 88% nominated only cross-gender crushes. Just under 7% reported only same-gender crushes, and 5% reported both cross- and same-gender crushes.
Only 12% of participants who nominated a crush experienced reciprocity (they were nominated by the same student they had a crush on). Of the 39 students who reported being in a romantic relationship, 39% reported having a crush on someone other than their partner.
Looking into the characteristics of students who were nominated as crushes, results indicated that students who had more friendship connections were more likely to be fancied. Furthermore, at the individual level, adolescents were more likely to fancy a specific peer if they *personally* perceived that peer as popular or physically aggressive. However, broader, group-wide reputations for popularity or physical attractiveness did not make someone more likely to receive crush nominations.
Conversely, when looking at who *sent* crush nominations, adolescents who had more friends or who had a group-wide reputation for being relationally aggressive—meaning they spread gossip, rumors, or socially excluded others—tended to nominate more crushes (especially among boys). On the other hand, students who were considered popular by the broader peer group tended to be more selective, giving fewer crush nominations.
“Overall, these findings demonstrate how social visibility, status, and individual strategies of romantic pursuit are associated with early adolescent crush patterns, consistent with sexual selection processes,” the study authors concluded.
The study contributes to the scientific knowledge about the intricacies of adolescent interpersonal and romantic relationships. However, the study authors note that the cross-sectional design of the research (collecting data at only a single point in time) limits the ability to determine cause and effect. Additionally, the self-report nature of the survey may have introduced social desirability bias—the tendency for people to answer questions in a way that makes them look good—or limited self-awareness. Also, because the participants were Dutch adolescents in a relatively homogenous and semi-rural setting, the results may not generalize to more urban or culturally diverse contexts.
The paper, “Who Fancies Whom? Investigating Adolescent Romantic Interests,” was authored by Melissa González-Loyola, Diego Francisco Palacios Farias, and René Veenstra.
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #adolescentromance #crushculture #peerinfluence #romanticdevelopment #socialstatus #sexualselection #pearsstudy #highschooldating #adolescentpsychology #socialnetworkeffects
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⚡️Meet the Blue-footed Booby (Sula nebouxii)! Males flaunt bright #𝖇𝖑𝖚𝖊𝖋𝖊𝖊𝖙 in a synchronized courtship ritual. 🧬 Ornithologists link this unique #sexualselection trait directly to carotenoid pigments, diet quality, and immune fitness! #science #Wissenschaft #biology #evolution #nature #Forschung
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Analysis of the lineages of 8 clans of spotted hyenas over 8 generations revealed that, although males had greater reproductive inequality than females in any generation, over successive generations the female offspring of high-status female lineages made up a higher and higher fraction of the population. Inheritance of status leads to females having a higher overall reproductive inequality.
Summary: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1137282
Original paper: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aee7880
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"Is this thing on?" The Lyre Birds Don't Just Sing for Attention, but rather, to demonstrate their genetics!
#lyrebird #birdsong #animalbehavior #sexualselection -
By controlling the food sources available to individual birds, and conducting DNA tests on all hatchlings in 350 nest boxes for three years, researchers found that female mountain chickadees preferentially choose males with better spatial cognition skills for extra-pair matings.
Summary: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1132331
Original paper: https://elifesciences.org/reviewed-preprints/110905
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Angler fish take mating for life to a whole new level. The male actually merges with the female. "I've got you babe" starts to mean something very different here! #marinebiology #anglerfish #sexualselection #oceanlife
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This week's #NewBooks at the library: Three more books from the NHBS January sale
- The Mandrill: A Case of Extreme Sexual Selection, a scientific monograph by Alan F. Dixson, published by Cambridge University Press.
- Plant Love: The Scandalous Truth About the Sex Life of #Plants, a popular science book on #Botany by Michael Allaby, published by Filbert Press.
- Unnatural Companions: Rethinking Our Love of Pets in an Age of Wildlife #Extinction, a difficult but necessary book by Peter Christie, published by Island Press.#Books #Bookstodon #Scicomm #Primatology #Evolution #EvolutionaryBiology #SexualSelection #ConservationBiology @bookstodon
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The Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics of Sexual Traits That Increase Mate Encounter Rates by Watts and Fitzpatrick
Read now ahead of print!
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/739604 -
Women rated the facial attractiveness and masculinity of photographs of 105 healthy and beardless men between 30 and 45 years old, and their ratings were positively correlated with age and testosterone, and negatively correlated with adiposity.
Summary: https://www.psypost.org/women-can-read-age-adiposity-and-testosterone-level-from-a-mans-face/
Original paper: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10508-025-03205-3
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New meta-analysis out on the role of sexual selection in speciation!
Across the Animal kingdom, we found that stronger sexual selection is significantly (though weakly) associated with greater species richness in comparative studies — suggesting a modest role for sexual selection in speciation.
A great collaboration with Tim Janicke, Jeanne Tonnabel, Tamra Mendelson & Mike Ritchie.
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Operational sex ratio (Ecology 🏞️)
In the evolutionary biology of sexual reproduction, operational sex ratio is the ratio of sexually competing males that are ready to mate to sexually competing females that are ready to mate, or alternatively the local ratio of fertilizable females to sexually active males at any given time. This differs from physical ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operational_sex_ratio
#OperationalSexRatio #Ecology #SexRatio #Reproduction #MatingSystems #SexualSelection
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Male intrasexual competition (Evolutionary biology 🧬)
In ethology, male-male intrasexual competition occurs when two males of the same species compete for the opportunity to mate with a female. Sexually dimorphic traits, size, sex ratio, and the social situation may all play a role in the effects male-male competition has on the reproductive success of a male and the...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Male_intrasexual_competition
#MaleIntrasexualCompetition #SexualSelection #EvolutionaryBiology
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Till Selection Do Us Part? Testing Sexual Selection’s Role in Speciation
Summary & Analysis by Pooja Radhakrishnan of "Evolutionary lability of sexual selection and its implications for speciation and macroevolution" by Januario et al.
https://www.amnat.org/an/newpapers/April-2025-Januario.html -
Ornamental traits play a central role in sexual selection. Gussone et al. identify sources of phenotypic variation in ornamental traits by showing that inbreeding and genetic relatedness of rivals affect the dynamic colour-expression in competing males in a cichlid fish.
Read now ahead of print!
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/736181#sexualSelection #phenotype #inbreeding #genetic #fish #ornamentalTraits
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Januario et al. found no correlation between sexual selection intensity & speciation rates or proxy traits. Because sexual selection intensity has high intraspecific variation and low phylogenetic signal, its macroevolutionary impacts are weak. Read now!
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/734457#sexualSelection #speciation #intraspecificVariation #phylogenetics #macroevolution
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How and why does #SexualSelection vary geographically? @ra_barber @ja_tobias &co study 10,671 #bird species, revealing that avian sexual selection varies latitudinally, is explained by temperature seasonality & other #climate-related factors #PLOSBiology https://plos.io/4fixxjC
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Aren't mouthbrooders sexy? Rueger et al. find that sexual selection in the pajama cardinalfish, where fathers brood eggs in their mouth, changes with group size and composition. Both sexes can take advantage of extra-pair matings. Read now ahead of print!
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/731422#mouthbrooders #sexualSelection #pajamaCardinalfish #eggs #cardinalfish
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How does sexual selection influence behavioural consistency? Using experimental evolution, Brand et al. demonstrate that evolution under heightened sexual selection limits individual phenotypic plasticity and promotes male behavioural consistency.
https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/729600#sexualSelection #behavioral #evolution #phenotypicPlasticity #male
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New paper on the measurement of #SexualSelection!
https://doi.org/10.1093/evolut/qpad227Sexual selection may favour combinations of traits before, during, and/or after copulation.
Here, we studied how selection builds up along consecutive episodes of selection by (i) assessing the ability of individual flatworms to mate, transfer sperm, and fertilize eggs; and (ii) measuring 13 phenotypic traits (including sperm production rate, the shape of male genitalia, and the morphology of sperm cells).
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Genic capture (Evolutionary biology 🧬)
Genic capture is a hypothesis explaining the maintenance of genetic variance in traits under sexual selection. A classic problem in sexual selection is the fixation of alleles that are beneficial under strong selection, thereby eliminating the benefits of mate choice. Genic capture resolves this paradox by suggesting that additive genetic variance of sexua...
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Some female frogs have a clever trick to avoid unwanted mating: they fake their own deaths. The frogs, known as moor frogs, turn blue during the breeding season, and can play dead when harassed by males. The strategy could help them conserve energy, avoid injuries, and choose better mates. #Frogs #SexualSelection #LiveScience https://www.livescience.com/animals/frogs/these-female-frogs-fake-their-own-deaths-to-get-out-of-sex
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"I'll have what she's having!" Why do females choose particular mates? @EmilyHDuVal @servedio1 &co propose that mate choices rely on context-dependent social information, explaining major puzzles in the study of #SexualSelection, including why preferences vary among individuals and over time and how male trait variation is maintained. #PLOSBiology https://plos.io/46EHVgN
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New #pterosaur species from #Solnhofen described by Dave Hone and coworkers. Got a big crest so more palaeo #SexualSelection going on. Figure 12 is especially splendid.
https://palaeo-electronica.org/content/current-in-press-articles/3878-a-new-solnhofen-pterosaur