What does disruptive selection favor in a population?

Disruptive selection favors extreme phenotypes within a population, leading to an increase in individual variation by selecting against the average or intermediate traits. This kind of selection occurs when the environment presents conditions that provide advantages to individuals with traits at both ends of the phenotypic spectrum, while individuals with intermediate traits have a lower fitness and reproductive success. A classic example would be a scenario in which a population of birds has a wide variety of beak sizes. If the available food sources are either very small or very large seeds, birds with extreme beak sizes that are highly efficient at accessing these food sources would be more successful than birds with intermediate beak sizes. Over time, this preferential survival of extreme phenotypes can lead to increased divergence within the population and potential speciation.