What is the result of stabilizing selection to a normal bell curve?

Stabilizing selection is a form of natural selection that favors intermediate variations of a trait, which results in a reduction of extremes. When applied to a population distribution represented by a normal bell curve, stabilizing selection leads to a narrowing of the range of measurements. This process effectively decreases the frequency of traits that are either significantly below or above the average, reinforcing the prevalence of traits around the mean.

As a result, while the average of the measurements remains essentially the same, the overall distribution becomes more concentrated around that mean with fewer extreme values. This narrowing trend can be visually represented as the peak of the bell curve becoming taller and sharper, indicating that more individuals are clustered around the average trait value and fewer individuals exhibit traits at the extremes. Thus, this shift brought about by stabilizing selection is characterized by increased prevalence of average individuals and decreased representation of both lower and higher extremes.