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Assortative Mating

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Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior

Synonyms

Nonrandom mating; Assortative pairing; Assortment; Homogamy; Assortative mating; Disassortative mating; Heterogamy

Definition

Assortative mating is defined as a pattern of nonrandom mating, where there is a correlation (positive or negative) between male and female genotypes and/or phenotypes across mating pairs. Positive assortative mating (also called homogamy) implies a tendency to mate with genetically or phenotypically similar individuals. Conversely, negative assortative mating (also called heterogamy or disassortative mating) implies a tendency to mate with genotypically or phenotypically dissimilar traits. In the speciation literature, assortative mating is considered as a mechanism that drives reproductive isolation within a diverging population or between distinct species.

Introduction

An important focus in the field of sexual selection over the past decade has been to understand how and why animals choose their mates. In some cases, mate choice has been found to...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, Toulouse, France

    Alice Baniel

Authors
  1. Alice Baniel
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Correspondence to Alice Baniel .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland University , Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Jennifer Vonk

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University Department of Psychology, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Constance Dubuc

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Baniel, A. (2018). Assortative Mating. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_288-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47829-6_288-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47829-6

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