<P> Stabilizing selection (not to be confused with negative or purifying selection) is a type of natural selection in which the population mean stabilizes on a particular non-extreme trait value . This is thought to be the most common mechanism of action for natural selection because most traits do not appear to change drastically over time . Stabilizing selection commonly uses negative selection (a.k.a. purifying selection) to select against extreme values of the character . Stabilizing selection is the opposite of disruptive selection . Instead of favoring individuals with extreme phenotypes, it favors the intermediate variants . Stabilizing selection tends to remove the more severe phenotypes, resulting in the reproductive success of the norm or average phenotypes . This means that most common phenotype in the population is selected for and continues to dominate in future generations . Because most traits change little over time, stabilizing selection is thought to be the most common type of selection in most populations . </P> <P> The Russian evolutionary biologist Ivan Schmalhausen founded the theory of stabilizing selection, publishing a paper in Russian titled "Stabilizing selection and its place among factors of evolution" in 1941 and a monograph "Factors of Evolution: The Theory of Stabilizing Selection" in 1945 . </P>

Why is it thought that the majority of natural selection is stabilizing selection
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