Fisher's sons’ effect in sexual selection: absent, intermittent or just low experimental power?

• DOI: 10.1111/jeb.12973
• Publication Date: 2016-08-30T14:54:54Z
• Authors: M. D. Sharma; A. J. Wilson; D. J. Hosken
• Keywords: Male; 570; 0303 health sciences; Models, Statistical; 330; Sexual Behavior; Mating Preference, Animal; genetic correlation; intersexual genetic correlation; Biological Evolution; runaway sexual selection; Sexual Behavior, Animal; 03 medical and health sciences; Phenotype; Animals; Female; genetic effects; Selection, Genetic; 10. No inequality; indirect effects

AbstractThe Fisherian sexual selection paradigm has been called the null model of sexual selection. At its heart is the expectation of a genetic correlation (rG) between female preference and male trait. However, recent meta‐analysis has shown estimated correlations are often extremely weak and not statistically significant. We show here that systematic failure of studies to reject the null hypothesis that rG = 0 is almost certainly due to the low power of most experimental designs used. We provide an easy way to assess experimental power a priori and suggest that current data make it difficult to definitively test a key component of the Fisher effect.