Abstract Mate choice lies close to differential reproduction, the engine of evolution. Patterns of mate choice consequently have power to direct the course of evolution. Here we provide evidence suggesting one pattern of human mate choice—the tendency for mates to be similar in overall desirability—caused the evolution of a structure of correlations that we call the d factor. We use agent-based models to demonstrate that assortative mating causes the evolution of a positive manifold of desirability, d, such that an individual who is desirable as a mate along any one dimension tends to be desirable across all other dimensions. Further, we use a large cross-cultural sample with n = 14,478 from 45 countries around the world to show that this d-factor emerges in human samples, is a cross-cultural universal, and is patterned in a way consistent with an evolutionary history of assortative mating. Our results suggest that assortative mating can explain the evolution of a broad structure of human trait covariation.

中文翻译：

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分类交配和合意性协变的演变

摘要 配偶选择接近差异繁殖，进化的引擎。因此，配偶选择的模式具有指导进化过程的力量。在这里，我们提供的证据表明人类择偶的一种模式——配偶在整体合意性上相似的趋势——导致了我们称之为 d 因素的相关性结构的演变。我们使用基于代理的模型来证明，分类交配会导致可取性的正流形 d 的演变，因此在任何一个维度上都希望成为配偶的个体在所有其他维度上都趋于可取。此外，我们使用来自世界各地 45 个国家的 n = 14,478 的大型跨文化样本来表明这个 d 因子出现在人类样本中，是跨文化的普遍性，并且以与分类交配的进化历史一致的方式进行模式化。我们的结果表明，分类交配可以解释人类特征协变的广泛结构的演变。