Lidborg, Linda H. and Cross, Catharine Penelope and Boothroyd, Lynda G. (2022) 'A meta-analysis of the association between male dimorphism and fitness outcomes in humans.', eLife., 11 . e65031.
Abstract
Humans are sexually dimorphic: men and women differ in body build and composition, craniofacial structure, and voice pitch, likely mediated in part by developmental testosterone. Sexual selection hypotheses posit that, ancestrally, more 'masculine' men may have acquired more mates and/or sired more viable offspring. Thus far, however, evidence for either association is unclear. Here, we meta-analyze the relationships between six masculine traits and mating/reproductive outcomes (96 studies, 474 effects, N = 177,044). Voice pitch, height, and testosterone all predicted mating; however, strength/muscularity was the strongest and only consistent predictor of both mating and reproduction. Facial masculinity and digit ratios did not significantly predict either. There was no clear evidence for any effects of masculinity on offspring viability. Our findings support arguments that strength/muscularity may be sexually selected in humans, but cast doubt regarding selection for other forms of masculinity and highlight the need to increase tests of evolutionary hypotheses outside of industrialized populations.
Item Type: | Article |
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Full text: | (AM) Accepted Manuscript Available under License - Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. Download PDF (24090Kb) |
Status: | Peer-reviewed |
Publisher Web site: | https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.65031 |
Publisher statement: | © 2022, Lidborg et al. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited. |
Date accepted: | 17 February 2022 |
Date deposited: | 07 March 2022 |
Date of first online publication: | 18 February 2022 |
Date first made open access: | 07 March 2022 |
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