Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33168992›Full record

ArticleNature ecology & evolution2021

Same-sex sexual behaviour and selection for indiscriminate mating.

Brian A Lerch, Maria R Servedio

Abstract read
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In one paragraph

Article in Nature ecology & evolution, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
17citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

17 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Review
  2. Article
  3. Multispecies analysis of social effects on same-sex sexual behavior challenges mistaken identity hypotheses in insects.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2026
    Article
  4. Article
  5. Article
  6. Drivers of same-sex sexual behaviour.Nature ecology & evolution · 2026
    Article
  7. Review
  8. Review
  9. Article
  10. Male crickets in poor condition engage in less same-sex sexual behavior.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024
    Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Ancestral sex-role plasticity facilitates the evolution of same-sex sexual behavior.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022
    Article
  17. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Brian A LerchDepartment of Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. blerch@live.unc.edu.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0003-4894-6834
Maria R ServedioDepartment of Biology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3965-4445

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

The widespread presence of same-sex sexual behaviour (SSB) has long been thought to pose an evolutionary conundrum, as participants in SSB suffer the cost of failing to reproduce after expending the time and energy to find a mate. The potential for SSB to occur as part of an optimal strategy has received less attention, although indiscriminate sexual behaviour may be the ancestral mode of sexual reproduction. Here, we build a simple model of sexual reproduction and create a theoretical framework for the evolution of indiscriminate sexual behaviour. We provide strong support for the hypothesis that SSB can be maintained by selection for indiscriminate sexual behaviour, by showing that indiscriminate mating is the optimal strategy under a wide range of conditions. Further, our model suggests that the conditions that most strongly favour indiscriminate mating were probably present at the origin of sexual behaviour. These findings have implications not only for the evolutionary origins of SSB, but also for the evolution of discriminate sexual behaviour across the animal kingdom.

Indexed as

ReproductionSexual Behavior, AnimalAnimalsHumansSexual Behavior

Identifiers

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.