Emotional selection (evolution)

Emotional selection is a form of evolutionary selection where decisions are made based primarily on emotional factors.

The German philosopher Ferdinand Fellmann proposed in 2009 emotional selection as a third form of evolutionary selection besides natural and sexual selection. Loving, monogamous pair-bonding seems to be the favored field where sexual selection is being transformed in emotional selection specific for human courtship and mating.

The concept of emotional selection fits the recent trend of evolutionary psychology which suggests that individual differences are more than the raw material upon which natural selection operates as a homogenizing force. Instead, personality and individual differences are created by "psychosocial selection" in the more intense forms of pair-bonding in primate sociality. Pair-bonds are based on detecting and supporting emotional complexity in partners with whom we maintain long-term intimate intercourse.