2017/03/12 by Theodore P. Hill, Hill, Theodore P. · 1 voice · 6 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Mathematics · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Biology #Converse #Evolution and Genetic Dynamics #Evolution of sexual reproduction #Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation #Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior #Genetics #Mathematical economics #Mathematics #Probabilistic logic #Statistics #Term (time) #Variable (mathematics)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1703.04184
published in arXiv (Cornell University) (Cornell University)
openalex publication_date 2017/03/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
An elementary biostatistical theory based on a selectivity-variability principle is proposed to address a question raised by Charles Darwin, namely, how one sex of a sexually dimorphic species might tend to evolve with greater variability than the other sex. Briefly, the theory says that if one sex is relatively selective then from one generation to the next, more variable subpopulations of the opposite sex will generally tend to prevail over those with lesser variability. Moreover, the perhaps less intuitive converse also holds: if a sex is relatively non-selective, then less variable subpopulations of the opposite sex will prevail over those with greater variability. This theory requires certain regularity conditions on the distributions, but makes no assumptions about differences in means between the sexes, nor does it presume that one sex is selective and the other non-selective. Two mathematical models of the selectivity-variability principle are presented: a discrete-time one-step probabilistic model of short-term behavior with an example using normally distributed perceived fitness values; and a continuous-time deterministic model for the long-term asymptotic behavior of the expected sizes of the subpopulations with an example using exponentially distributed fitness levels.