Sexual conflict

Sexual conflict or sexual antagonism occurs when the two sexes have conflicting optimal fitness strategies concerning reproduction, particularly over the mode and frequency of mating, potentially leading to an evolutionary arms race between males and females. In one example, males may benefit from multiple matings, while multiple matings may harm or endanger females due to the anatomical differences of that species. Sexual conflict underlies the evolutionary distinction between male and female.

The development of an evolutionary arms race can also be seen in the chase-away sexual selection model, which places inter-sexual conflicts in the context of secondary sexual characteristic evolution, sensory exploitation, and female resistance. According to chase-away selection, continuous sexual conflict creates an environment in which mating frequency and male secondary sexual trait development are somewhat in step with the female's degree of resistance. It has primarily been studied in animals, though it can in principle apply to any sexually reproducing organism, such as plants and fungi. There is some evidence for sexual conflict in plants.

Sexual conflict takes two major forms:

Sexual conflict may lead to antagonistic co-evolution, in which one sex (usually male) evolves a favorable trait that is offset by a countering trait in the other sex. Similarly, interlocus sexual conflict can be the result of what is called a perpetual cycle. The perpetual cycle begins with the traits that favor male reproductive competition, which eventually manifests into male persistence. These favorable traits will cause a reduction in the fitness of females due to their persistence. Following this event, females may develop a counter-adaptation, that is, a favorable trait that reduces the direct costs implemented by males. This is known as female resistance. After this event, females' fitness depression decreases, and the cycle starts again. Interlocus sexual conflict reflects interactions among mates to achieve their optimal fitness strategies and can be explained through evolutionary concepts.

Sensory exploitation by males is one mechanism that involves males attempting to overcome female reluctance. It can result in chase-away selection, which then leads to a co-evolutionary arms race. There are also other mechanisms involved in sexual conflict such as traumatic insemination, forced copulation, penis fencing, love darts and others.

Female resistance traditionally includes reducing negative effects to mechanisms implemented by males, but outside the norm may include sexual cannibalism, increased fitness in females on offspring and increased aggression to males.

Some regard sexual conflict as a subset of sexual selection (which was traditionally regarded as mutualistic^{[citation needed]}), while others suggest it is a separate evolutionary phenomenon.

The differences between male and female general evolutionary interests can be better understood through the analysis of the various factors that affect sexual conflict. In situations involving a male and female, only the relative positions of the optimal trait values are important as it is their comparative positions that provide insight into the resulting conflict. The trait value bar at the bottom of the accompanying figure indicates the relative intensity of each trait. The left side represents the poorly developed end of intensity range, while the right side represents the strongly developed end of the range.