The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin's Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World - and Us

Written by Richard O. Prum

Narrated by Dan Woren

A FINALIST FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE

NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW, SMITHSONIAN, AND WALL STREET JOURNAL

A major reimagining of how evolutionary forces work, revealing how mating preferences—what Darwin termed "the taste for the beautiful"—create the extraordinary range of ornament in the animal world.

In the great halls of science, dogma holds that Darwin's theory of natural selection explains every branch on the tree of life: which species thrive, which wither away to extinction, and what features each evolves. But can adaptation by natural selection really account for everything we see in nature?
     Yale University ornithologist Richard Prum—reviving Darwin's own views—thinks not. Deep in tropical jungles around the world are birds with a dizzying array of appearances and mating displays: Club-winged Manakins who sing with their wings, Great Argus Pheasants who dazzle prospective mates with a four-foot-wide cone of feathers covered in golden 3D spheres, Red-capped Manakins who moonwalk. In thirty years of fieldwork, Prum has seen numerous display traits that seem disconnected from, if not outright contrary to, selection for individual survival. To explain this, he dusts off Darwin's long-neglected theory of sexual selection in which the act of choosing a mate for purely aesthetic reasons—for the mere pleasure of it—is an independent engine of evolutionary change.
    Mate choice can drive ornamental traits from the constraints of adaptive evolution, allowing them to grow ever more elaborate. It also sets the stakes for sexual conflict, in which the sexual autonomy of the female evolves in response to male sexual control. Most crucially, this framework provides important insights into the evolution of human sexuality, particularly the ways in which female preferences have changed male bodies, and even maleness itself, through evolutionary time.
     The Evolution of Beauty presents a unique scientific vision for how nature's splendor contributes to a more complete understanding of evolution and of ourselves.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
• Release date: May 9, 2017
• ISBN: 9781524756581

Reviews for The Evolution of Beauty

[kalliegrace · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a little denser than your typical pop science read, which can be great for those wanting more in-depth information. The title just takes one small logical step to get to what this book is actually about, which is sexual attraction and mating in many different species. There is a lot about duck penises, chimpanzee infanticide, and birds. So many birds, which I love, but could have used a little more variety since we really only left them to talk about the violence of other species.

[steve02476 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Enjoyed a lot, but I didn’t find it 100% convincing. Learned a lot of interesting stuff, though. I’m convinced that Darwinian sexual selection is important, and not merely as a proxy for fitness. But I’m not sure I’m ready to accept this as aesthetic selection either. Would like to read more about the topic. Prum is a good writer.

[Heracliocp · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Very interesting until it starts talking about humans. It chooses some cases of sexual selection that fit very well with the model of Fisher, Lande, and Kirkpatrick. It is clear that he knows a lot about birds and one learns a lot not only about them but also about evolutionary mechanisms. However, transferring the analogy directly to humans leads to absurd (and very arbitrary) conclusions. Some examples are male homosexuality as a byproduct of domestication through sexual selection and female homosexuality as protection against rape. He knows quite a bit about birds, but the book is very poor otherwise. (Translated from Spanish)

[marthajeanne · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The bird parts of this book are fascinating. I found the parts about human evolution to be less compelling.

[nmele_4 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

As a very amateur birder, I was attracted to this book by its cover, but despite much focus on birds, this is a broader book and a most radical one. Prum basically advocates for the discarded theory of Darwin, i.e., that mate choice or sexual selection is as powerful an evolutionary factor as natural selection. At times, Prum's eloquent style is overwhelmed by the complexity of his arguments or the subtlety of his points, but he is always clear and his arguments, though complex, are straightforward. The latter third or so of his book are a powerful set of arguments, conclusions and observations applied to human beings and the cultural wars that plague U.S. society.