What is Bateman's principle in simple terms?

Males gain many more offspring by mating with more partners while females gain much less, so competition among males tends to be more intense.

Is Bateman's principle still accepted?

The methods of the original experiment have been criticized, but meta-analyses across many animal groups support an average tendency for stronger sexual selection in males, with many species-level exceptions and sex-role reversals.

Bateman's Principle

🔬 Natural Sciences By CampusDown Wiki Editorial Team Last updated October 27, 2026

Bateman's principle is the generalization proposed by the British geneticist Angus Bateman from experiments on fruit flies in 1948 that male reproductive success increases strongly with the number of mates whereas female success does not, so variance in reproductive success, and hence sexual selection, is greater in males.

Contents

1. Bateman's experiments
2. Theoretical development
3. Reappraisal and meta-analysis
4. FAQ
5. References

Bateman's experiments

Bateman (1948) placed strains of Drosophila carrying different dominant markers, such as eye shape, together in bottles and inferred parentage from the markers in the offspring. Males' offspring numbers rose steeply with their number of mates, whereas females' offspring numbers barely increased after a single mating. The proportion of individuals leaving no offspring and the variance in reproductive success were also higher in males. He attributed the difference to anisogamy, the unequal cost of producing large eggs and small sperm, and interpreted it as the reason sexual selection acts more strongly on males.

Theoretical development

Trivers (1972) extended Bateman's work into parental investment theory, arguing that the sex investing more in offspring becomes choosy and the sex investing less competes for mates. Wade (1979) quantified variance in reproductive success as the opportunity for selection, and Arnold and Duvall (1994) defined the Bateman gradient as the regression slope of reproductive success on number of mates. Clutton-Brock and Vincent (1991) argued that sex differences in potential reproductive rates determine sex roles, and Jones et al. (2000) found a reversed Bateman gradient in a pipefish in which males become pregnant.

Reappraisal and meta-analysis

Snyder and Gowaty (2007) reanalyzed Bateman's original data and argued that limitations of the marker method biased parentage assignment, and Gowaty, Kim and Anderson (2012) reported no clear evidence when they repeated the experiment. Tang-Martínez (2016) criticized fixed assumptions about sex roles, pointing to many cases in which females benefit from multiple mating. By contrast, meta-analyses by Fritzsche and Arnqvist (2013) and Janicke et al. (2016) across animal taxa found that, on average, Bateman gradients and opportunities for selection are larger in males. Kokko and Jennions (2008) emphasized that sex ratios and parental investment coevolve.

FAQ

What is Bateman's principle in simple terms?: Males gain many more offspring by mating with more partners while females gain much less, so competition among males tends to be more intense.
Is Bateman's principle still accepted?: The methods of the original experiment have been criticized, but meta-analyses across many animal groups support an average tendency for stronger sexual selection in males, with many species-level exceptions and sex-role reversals.

Sources reviewed: 2026-10-26

References

Bateman, A. J. (1948). Intra-sexual selection in Drosophila. Heredity, 2(3), 349–368.
Darwin, C. (1871). The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. London: John Murray.
Trivers, R. L. (1972). Parental investment and sexual selection. In B. Campbell (Ed.), Sexual Selection and the Descent of Man 1871–1971 (pp. 136–179). Chicago: Aldine.
Wade, M. J. (1979). Sexual selection and variance in reproductive success. American Naturalist, 114(5), 742–747.
Arnold, S. J., & Duvall, D. (1994). Animal mating systems: A synthesis based on selection theory. American Naturalist, 143(2), 317–348.
Clutton-Brock, T. H., & Vincent, A. C. J. (1991). Sexual selection and the potential reproductive rates of males and females. Nature, 351(6321), 58–60.
Jones, A. G., Rosenqvist, G., Berglund, A., Arnold, S. J., & Avise, J. C. (2000). The Bateman gradient and the cause of sexual selection in a sex-role-reversed pipefish. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 267(1444), 677–680.
Snyder, B. F., & Gowaty, P. A. (2007). A reappraisal of Bateman's classic study of intrasexual selection. Evolution, 61(11), 2457–2468.
Gowaty, P. A., Kim, Y.-K., & Anderson, W. W. (2012). No evidence of sexual selection in a repetition of Bateman's classic study of Drosophila melanogaster. PNAS, 109(29), 11740–11745.
Tang-Martínez, Z. (2016). Rethinking Bateman's principles: Challenging persistent myths of sexually reluctant females and promiscuous males. Journal of Sex Research, 53(4–5), 532–559.
Kokko, H., & Jennions, M. D. (2008). Parental investment, sexual selection and sex ratios. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 21(4), 919–948.
Janicke, T., Häderer, I. K., Lajeunesse, M. J., & Anthes, N. (2016). Darwinian sex roles confirmed across the animal kingdom. Science Advances, 2(2), e1500983.
Fritzsche, K., & Arnqvist, G. (2013). Homage to Bateman: Sex roles predict sex differences in sexual selection. Evolution, 67(7), 1926–1936.

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This article was last updated on October 27, 2026. It is based on widely recognized original works and textbooks; when citing it in a paper, please check the original sources listed in the references.