Smit Nikolaos
Institut des Sciences de l'Évolution, Université de Montpellier, Place Eugène Bataillon, Montpellier, 34090, France.
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, Leipzig, 04103, Germany.
Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc. 2025 Aug;100(4):1557-1577. doi: 10.1111/brv.70013. Epub 2025 Apr 30.
Sexual conflict, the conflict between the evolutionary interests of females and males over mating, occasionally results in the evolution of traits favourable for one sex and adverse for the other. In this context, males can use sexual coercion to increase their mating success, at the expense of their female targets' mate choice. An increasing number of studies highlight a great diversity of male and female behaviours that serve as strategies and counter-strategies, respectively, to sexual coercion. Previous studies have reviewed the literature on infanticide but not the literature on forced copulation, sexual harassment, intimidation or punishment. This qualitative review synthesises the empirical evidence and draws a unified framework of the ecology of sexual coercion across animals, presenting male sexually coercive strategies and co-evolved female counter-strategies that can reduce coercion and its fitness costs. Using examples from insects to humans, it shows that different strategies of sexual coercion can lead to the evolution of similar counter-strategies. These counter-strategies include female promiscuity, deception of males (e.g. concealed ovulation or pseudo-oestrus), avoidance of certain males and association with others for protection, female aggregation to dilute coercion and ultimately physical resistance by single or allied females. Extending previous work, this review provides compelling evidence of sexually antagonistic coevolution amid sexual coercion. It also calls for future work to clarify, first, which individual traits are linked to greater coercion rates in males and a higher likelihood of receiving coercion in females and, second, any causal relationships between different strategies of sexual coercion and the evolution of different social and mating systems.
性冲突，即雌性和雄性在交配方面的进化利益冲突，偶尔会导致有利于一方性别而不利于另一方性别的性状进化。在这种情况下，雄性可以使用性胁迫来提高其交配成功率，而这是以牺牲雌性目标的配偶选择为代价的。越来越多的研究强调了大量多样的雄性和雌性行为，它们分别作为针对性胁迫的策略和反策略。以往的研究回顾了关于杀婴的文献，但没有回顾关于强迫交配、性骚扰、恐吓或惩罚的文献。这篇定性综述综合了实证证据，并构建了一个统一的跨动物界性胁迫生态学框架，展示了雄性的性胁迫策略以及共同进化而来的雌性反策略，这些反策略可以减少胁迫及其适应性成本。通过从昆虫到人类的例子，它表明不同的性胁迫策略可以导致相似反策略的进化。这些反策略包括雌性滥交、欺骗雄性（如隐蔽排卵或假发情）、避开某些雄性并与其他雄性联合以获得保护、雌性聚集以稀释胁迫以及最终单个或联合的雌性进行身体抵抗。在扩展先前工作的基础上，这篇综述提供了性胁迫中性对抗协同进化的有力证据。它还呼吁未来的研究首先要弄清楚哪些个体特征与雄性更高的胁迫率以及雌性更高的遭受胁迫可能性相关，其次要弄清楚不同性胁迫策略与不同社会和交配系统进化之间的任何因果关系。
