Mating system change reduces the strength of sexual selection in an American frontier population of the 19th century

Abstract

Sexual selection, or competition among members of one sex for reproductive access to the other, is one of the strongest and fastest evolutionary processes. Comparative studies support the prediction that sexual selection is stronger in polygamous than in monogamous species. We report the first study of the effect on sexual selection of a change in mating system, from polygyny to monogamy, within a historical human population. Here we show that over the reproductive lifetimes of Utahns born between 1830 and 1894, socially induced reductions in the rate and degree of polygamy correspond to a 58% reduction in the strength of sexual selection. Polygyny conferred a strong advantage to male fitness as well as a weak disadvantage to female fitness. In contrast, mating with multiple males provided little benefit to females in this population. Polygamy benefitted males by increasing reproductive rates and by lengthening reproductive tenure. Each advantage contributed to roughly half of the increased total lifetime reproductive success. This study illustrates both the potency of sexual selection in polygynous human populations and the dramatic influence that short-term societal changes can have on evolutionary processes.