IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/thpobi/v145y2022icp126-135.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Male mating choices: The drive behind menopause?

Author

Listed:
  • Le, Anthia
  • Hawkes, Kristen
  • Kim, Peter S.

Abstract

When we examine the life history of humans against our closest primate relatives, the other great apes, there is notably a greater longevity in humans which includes a distinctive postmenopausal life stage, leading to the question, “How did human females evolve to have old-age infertility?†In their paper “Mate choice and the origin of menopause†(Morton et al., 2013), Morton et al. developed an agent-based model (ABM) to investigate the novel hypothesis that ancestral male mating choices, particularly forgoing mating with older females, were the driving force behind the evolution of menopause. From their model, they concluded that indeed male preference for young female mates could have driven females to lose fertility at older ages through deleterious mutations, leading to menopause.

Suggested Citation

  • Le, Anthia & Hawkes, Kristen & Kim, Peter S., 2022. "Male mating choices: The drive behind menopause?," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 126-135.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:thpobi:v:145:y:2022:i:c:p:126-135
    DOI: 10.1016/j.tpb.2022.04.001
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040580922000296
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.tpb.2022.04.001?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael Gurven & Hillard Kaplan, 2007. "Longevity Among Hunter‐ Gatherers: A Cross‐Cultural Examination," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 33(2), pages 321-365, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Silke van Daalen & Hal Caswell, 2015. "Lifetime reproduction and the second demographic transition: Stochasticity and individual variation," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 33(20), pages 561-588.
    2. Annette Baudisch & James W. Vaupel, 2009. "Senescence vs. sustenance: evolutionary-demographic models of aging," MPIDR Working Papers WP-2009-040, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany.
    3. Shiro Horiuchi & Nadine Ouellette & Siu Lan Karen Cheung & Jean-Marie Robine, 2013. "Modal age at death: lifespan indicator in the era of longevity extension," Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, vol. 11(1), pages 37-69.
    4. Fogarty, L. & Creanza, N. & Feldman, M.W., 2013. "The role of cultural transmission in human demographic change: An age-structured model," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 68-77.
    5. Hillard Kaplan & Michael Gurven, 2008. "Top-down and bottom-up research in biodemography," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 19(44), pages 1587-1602.
    6. James W. Vaupel, 2009. "Lively Questions for Demographers about Death at Older Ages," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 35(2), pages 347-356, June.
    7. Michal Engelman & Christopher L. Seplaki & Ravi Varadhan, 2017. "A Quiescent Phase in Human Mortality? Exploring the Ages of Least Vulnerability," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 54(3), pages 1097-1118, June.
    8. James A. Brander, 2010. "Presidential Address: Innovation in retrospect and prospect," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 43(4), pages 1087-1121, November.
    9. James R. Carey, 2008. "Biodemography: Research prospects and directions," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 19(50), pages 1749-1758.
    10. Loo, Sara L. & Rose, Danya & Hawkes, Kristen & Kim, Peter S., 2021. "Mate guarding in primates arises due to partner scarcity, even if the father provides no paternal care at all," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 100-113.
    11. Betz, Ulrich A.K., 2018. "Is the force awakening?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 296-303.
    12. Missov, Trifon I. & Lenart, Adam, 2013. "Gompertz–Makeham life expectancies: Expressions and applications," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 29-35.
    13. Jon Anson, 2013. "Surviving to be the oldest old—destiny or chance?," Vienna Yearbook of Population Research, Vienna Institute of Demography (VID) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, vol. 11(1), pages 71-85.
    14. Giambattista Salinari & Gustavo De Santis, 2020. "One or more rates of ageing? The extended gamma-Gompertz model (EGG)," Statistical Methods & Applications, Springer;Società Italiana di Statistica, vol. 29(2), pages 211-236, June.
    15. Arthur J. Robson & Larry Samuelson, 2009. "The Evolution of Time Preference with Aggregate Uncertainty," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(5), pages 1925-1953, December.
    16. Pavard, Samuel & Branger, Frédéric, 2012. "Effect of maternal and grandmaternal care on population dynamics and human life-history evolution: A matrix projection model," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 82(4), pages 364-376.
    17. Karen L. Kramer, 2021. "The Human Family—Its Evolutionary Context and Diversity," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(6), pages 1-17, May.
    18. Michael Gurven & Adrian V Jaeggi & Hillard Kaplan & Daniel Cummings, 2013. "Physical Activity and Modernization among Bolivian Amerindians," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(1), pages 1-13, January.
    19. Arthur Robson & Larry Samuelson, 2008. "The Evolution of Decision and Experienced Utilities," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 1678, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University, revised Feb 2010.
    20. Rose, Danya & Hawkes, Kristen & Kim, Peter S., 2019. "Adult sex ratio as an index for male strategy in primates," Theoretical Population Biology, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 40-50.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:thpobi:v:145:y:2022:i:c:p:126-135. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.journals.elsevier.com/intelligence .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.