Data now emerging show the fascinating and unexpected ways that genes and culture actually interact in animal mating situations. Consider the case of a fish less than an inch long: the guppy. In this species, females have an innate preference for males with lots of orange body color. Combining the importance of female mate copying with the documented genetically based preferences that female guppies exhibit for colorful males creates an ideal system in which to examine the relative importance of genetic and cultural factors in shaping mate choice. In a 1996 experiment in my lab, I did just that. Essentially I created an evolutionary soap opera. A female's genetic disposition was "pulling" her toward a more orange male, but social cues and the potential to copy the choice of others was tugging her in the exact opposite direction - toward the drabber of the two males. When males differed by small amounts of orange, females consistently chose the less orange males. In other words, they copied the choice of a female placed near such a male. Here, culture - in this case, the tendency to copy mate choice - overrode a genetic predisposition for orange males. If, however, males differed by large amounts of orange, females ignored the choice of others and preferred the oranger males - in this case, genetic predisposition masked any cultural effects. With guppies, it is as if a threshold color difference exists between males in the eyes of female guppies. Below that threshold, cultural effects are predominant in determining female mate choice, and above that threshold genetic factors cannot be overridden - and this in fish with a brain the size of a pinhead! - Lee Alan Dugatkin in The Imitation Factor

Lee, in his book, talks about how females imitate other females when choosing partners. If a female sees a man surrounded by other women, she gets interested. So much so that she might choose that male over another, one that genetically appears more attractive to her.

Doesn't that sound like high school? Not even a little bit?

I remember being in college and feeling amused, mostly cause I don't want to use a worse word, about how a male would date one sorority sister and then another, until half the house dated the same man. A guy who's dating looks appealing. Maybe cause the female thinks that since another female found him attractive of date-worthy, there must be something special about this guy. Especially, if the girl is popular or pretty.

Why is that?

Obviously, if all the women chased after the same man, there'd be one very lucky man and tons of not-so-lucky ones. So, obviously, some women choose different partners. Maybe cause they are oranger. But many women do go after the same man. Many women like to pick a man who's desirable. The joke about how much more attractive men become when they're wearing a wedding ring is not entirely without substance. Maybe women like the competition, the idea of having been chosen from a crowd. The idea of being the one that this desirable man picked. Or maybe it's the safety in numbers.

Lee also talks about how young women seem to imitate more than older women. As if young guppies know that their elder equivalents must have good taste in men. I think that also has validity in its correlation to human lives. I, personally, see this competition much more in teenagers than in adults. When an adult goes after a married man or an adult pursues some other woman's boyfriend, it's considered somewhat immature. Like she should know better. But women of all ages seem to do it all the same.

I don't really know the reasons for the imitation factor, but I can certainly agree with Lee that it's a part of our society. Even if it isn't the most desirable one.

Previously? To Have or Not to Have.