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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science pp 1–4Cite as

Parental Investment and Sexual Selection

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Synonyms

Mate choice; Mate competition; Parental care; Parental effort

Definition

Parental investment, which occurs when parents provide costly investment that increases offspring survival, and sexual selection, which occurs when some individuals acquire more mates than others because of their traits, are highly connected. Differences in parental investment are often related to differences in sexual selection and can affect mate availability, competition, and choice. Here, we provide an overview of the link between parental investment and sexual selection.

Introduction

Parental investment (i.e., any investment by the parent in an individual offspring that increases the offspring’s chance of surviving at the cost of the parent’s ability to invest in other offspring; Trivers 1972) and sexual selection (i.e., covariation between mating success and the expression of sexually selected traits) are both major determinants of an individual’s lifetime reproductive success. By investing into...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, Geology, and Environmental Science, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, Chattanooga, TN, USA

    Elijah Reyes & Hope Klug

Authors
  1. Elijah Reyes
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  2. Hope Klug
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Elijah Reyes .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

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

    Todd K. Shackelford

  2. Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

    Kevin Beaver

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Reyes, E., Klug, H. (2017). Parental Investment and Sexual Selection. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1691-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1691-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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