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What stabilizes the sex ratio?
Author(s) -
JAMES W. H.
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
annals of human genetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.537
H-Index - 77
eISSN - 1469-1809
pISSN - 0003-4800
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-1809.1995.tb00744.x
Subject(s) - sex ratio , operational sex ratio , psychology , biology , demography , developmental psychology , population , sociology
SUMMARY It is suggested that the human sex ratio at birth is stabilized only to a minor extent by the direct processes of natural selection. Instead the major factors stabilizing sex ratio seem to be behavioural (coital rates) and psychological (parental perceptions of adult sex ratios). It is suggested that parental hormone levels are (a) a consequence of perceived adult sex ratios, and (b) a cause of sex ratio in the next generation, thus providing the basis for a negative feedback process stabilizing the sex ratio.