Irrationality in mate choice revealed by túngara frogs

A third option leads to poor mates A “decoy” effect decreases rational decision-making in humans. Irrational decisions in this case are a result of a choice between two options being affected by the introduction of a suboptimal third choice. Lea and Ryan show that tungara frogs are also subject to a decoy effect, choosing a male with a less appealing call when presented with a third, inferior calling male. These results suggest that the choice of mates by animals may be context dependent. It appears that rational choice may not always drive sexual selection. Science, this issue p. 964 Female túngara frogs can be tricked into choosing less attractive mates. Mate choice models derive from traditional microeconomic decision theory and assume that individuals maximize their Darwinian fitness by making economically rational decisions. Rational choices exhibit regularity, whereby the relative strength of preferences between options remains stable when additional options are presented. We tested female frogs with three simulated males who differed in relative call attractiveness and call rate. In binary choice tests, females’ preferences favored stimulus caller B over caller A; however, with the addition of an inferior “decoy” C, females reversed their preferences and chose A over B. These results show that the relative valuation of mates is not independent of inferior alternatives in the choice set and therefore cannot be explained with the rational choice models currently used in sexual selection theory.