Sexual Signaling at a Nightclub
Alek is a physical space where typically males of a species congregate to display sexual signals meant to impress the discerning females (see Fiske, Rintamäki, & Karvonen, 1998 for a review of such species across many taxa). Click here to see a male Greater Sage-Grouse engaging in lekking behavior. In a few rare role-reversal species, it is the females who engage in lekking behaviour as a means of attracting prospective male suitors (cf. Funk & Tallamy, 2000). In my work, I have long argued that many consumer phenomena are nothing more than forms of lekking behavior. In the human context, men and women use sex-specific products as sexual signals. For additional details see my books The Evolutionary Bases of Consumption, and The Consuming Instinct: What Juicy Burgers, Ferraris, Pornography, and Gift Giving Reveal About Human Nature; also see one of my earliest Psychology Today posts here on the use of Porsches as a lekking signal; ...