CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 245Evolutionary Psychology and Human BehaviorAnimal Behavior and ReproductionMarriage and Sexual Relationships

Marriage Systems and Pathogen Stress in Human Societies

LOW, BOBBI S.·1990·American Zoologist
DOI 10.1093/icb/30.2.325
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

Pathogen stress is an important form of environmental extremeness and uncertainty for humans as well as other organisms. It is predicted to: fl] increase the degree of polygyny (as fewer males become appropriate mates); [2] make non-sororal polygyny more frequent (as variable offspring become more advantageous), and [3] be correlated with signs of sexual selection: physical dimorphism, societal rules about allowed wives for men in different categories, both achieved and inherited. The first two hypotheses are supported. As pathogen stress increases, the degree of polygyny increases, no matter how polygyny is measured. As pathogen stress increases, non-sororal polygyny and capture of women from outside societies increase; sororal and other endogamous forms of polygyny decrease. The third hypothesis is not supported. Measures of male-male competition and reflections of male status are not associated with pathogen stress. A man's actual present appearance (physical, behavioral) may provide a more direct and accurate reflection of a man's worth as a mate. It is possible that the measures available for testing here are not fully appropriate. These results suggest that major pathogens may have been, during human evolutionary history, an important selective force, shifting the polygyny threshold, and resulting in greater polygyny, and polygyny of specific types, in areas of high stress. The relationship appears to be of a threshold sort (at high levels of pathogen stress monogamy, polyandry, and mild polygyny are absent) rather than a linear relationship. We need within-society data for appropriate pathogens regarding relationship between individual pathogen load and probability of getting a mate, possible interactions between pathogen stress and resource accumulation in sexual selection, and impact of pathogen load on fertility.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1093/icb/30.2.325

Cites

1 of 1 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • The kind of polygyny found in temperate climates with a high pathogen load is mainly gene-based rather than resource-based, and it involves little paternal provisioning or parenting.

    “The kind of polygyny found in temperate climates with a high pathogen load is mainly gene-based rather than resource-based, and it involves little paternal provisioning or parenting (Low 1990).”

    From Parasite-stress promotes in-group assortative sociality: The cases of strong family ties and heightened religiosity (2012) · cites this paper as Low 1990

  • Several previous studies in humans have reported positive correlations between various measures of parasite stress and preferences for putative cues of long-term health.

    “Several previous studies in humans have reported positive correlations between various measures of parasite stress and preferences for putative cues of long-term health, suggesting that individuals place greater emphasis on potential mates' health cues in regions where pathogens impose a greater selection pressure (Gangestad & Buss 1993; Low 1990).”

    From Parasite-stress promotes in-group assortative sociality: The cases of strong family ties and heightened religiosity (2012) · cites this paper as Low 1990

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
LOW, B. S.
Affiliations
University of Michigan (US)
Corresponding author
LOW, BOBBI S.
ORCID
LOW, BOBBI S.
Venue
American Zoologist
Publisher
Oxford University Press (OUP)
Published
1990-05
Volume
30
Issue
2
Pages
325-340
ISSN
0003-1569 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1093/icb/30.2.325
OpenAlex
W2020716955
Cited by
245
References
1
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 19 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 16 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 35
FWCI
3.93
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
American Zoologist (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
  • Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Animal Behavior and Reproduction
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Marriage and Sexual Relationships
Keywords
pathogen stress, polygyny, sexual selection, male-male competition, endogamy, polyandry, monogamy, human evolution, environmental uncertainty, mate value

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review