In a study on mate choice, men and women were able to spend…

In a study on mate choice, men and women were able to spend “mate dollars” on traits they desired in a life partner. With a limited budget, women spent 17% of their money on yearly income, compared to only 3% spent by men on the same trait. Thus, women seem to prefer men that can provide direct, material benefits. Which hypothesis for this preference is based on kin-selection theory?

Male barn swallows have thin outer tail feathers that are so…

Male barn swallows have thin outer tail feathers that are somewhat longer than those possessed by females. When Anders Møller analyzed the effect of tail length on male mating success in the barn swallow in Europe, he did an experiment in which he randomly assigned males to one of three groups: he made some males’ tail feathers shorter by trimming them and made other males’ tail feathers longer by gluing feather sections onto their tails. But he also created a group in which he cut off parts of the males’ tail feathers and then simply glued the fragments back on to produce a tail of unchanged length. What was the point of this group? And why did he randomly assign his subjects to the shortened, lengthened, and unchanged tail groups?