The socio-sexual environment and social group choice by males

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Within populations, individual animals (including humans) differ to varying degrees in their behaviour and reproductive success. Such variation is necessary for the action of selection and thus evolution. Despite recent advances, much work remains to elucidate the mechanisms generating and maintaining biological trait variation, and the consequences of the latter for the processes of selection and evolution. Towards meeting this challenge, my research programme explores how and to what extent social associations among individual animals structures their societies and, in turn, how the social environment influences their behaviour. Socially-mediated behavioural decisions can affect social and sexual selection and evolutionary dynamics within populations.