Assortative Mating: Encounter-Network Topology and the Evolution of Attractiveness.

Sci Rep

Network Science and Technology Center, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 8th Street, Troy, NY, 12180-3590, USA.

Published: March 2017

We model a social-encounter network where linked nodes match for reproduction in a manner depending probabilistically on each node's attractiveness. The developed model reveals that increasing either the network's mean degree or the "choosiness" exercised during pair formation increases the strength of positive assortative mating. That is, we note that attractiveness is correlated among mated nodes. Their total number also increases with mean degree and selectivity during pair formation. By iterating over the model's mapping of parents onto offspring across generations, we study the evolution of attractiveness. Selection mediated by exclusion from reproduction increases mean attractiveness, but is rapidly balanced by skew in the offspring distribution of highly attractive mated pairs.

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5366857PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep45107DOI Listing

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