The strength of indirect selection on female mating preferences

An important but controversial class of hypotheses concerning the evolution of female preferences for extreme male mating displays involves “indirect selection.” Even in the absence of direct fitness effects, preference for males with high overall fitness can spread via a genetic correlation that develops between preference alleles and high fitness genotypes. Here we develop a quantitative expression for the force of indirect selection that (i) applies to any female mating behavior, (ii) is relatively insensitive to the underlying genetics, and (iii) is based on measurable quantities. In conjunction with the limited data now available, it suggests that the evolutionary force generated by indirect selection on preferences is weak in absolute terms. This finding raises the possibility that direct selection on preference genes may often be more important than indirect selection, but more data on the quantities identified by our model and on direct selection are needed to decide the question.