Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-9pm4c Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T08:12:05.125Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

There's no contest: Human sex differences are sexually selected

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 August 2009

Nicholas Pound ,
Martin Daly  and
Margo Wilson
Nicholas Pound
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Brunel University, Uxbridge UB8 3PH, United Kingdom. nicholas.pound@brunel.ac.uk
Martin Daly
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviour (PNB), McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4K1, Canada. daly@mcmaster.cawilson@mcmaster.ca
Margo Wilson
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviour (PNB), McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4K1, Canada. daly@mcmaster.cawilson@mcmaster.ca
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

An evolutionary psychological perspective drawing on sexual selection theory can better explain sex differences in aggression and violence than can social constructionist theories. Moreover, there is accumulating evidence that, in accordance with predictions derived from sexual selection theory, men modulate their willingness to engage in risky and violent confrontations in response to cues to fitness variance and future prospects.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 32 , Issue 3-4 , August 2009 , pp. 286 - 287
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Blau, J. & Blau, P. (1982) The cost of inequality. American Sociological Review 47:114–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Daly, M. & Wilson, M. (2001) Risk-taking, intrasexual competition, and homicide. In: Evolutionary psychology and motivation. Nebraska Symposium on Motivation, vol. 47. ed. French, J. A., Kamil, A. C. & Leger, D. W., pp. 1–36. University of Nebraska Press.Google Scholar
Daly, M. & Wilson, M. (2005) Carpe diem: Adaptation and devaluing the future. Quarterly Review of Biology 80:55–60.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Daly, M., Wilson, M. & Vasdev, S. (2001) Income inequality and homicide rates in Canada and the United States. Canadian Journal of Criminology 43:219–36.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eagly, A. H. & Wood, W. (1999) The origins of sex differences in human behavior: Evolved dispositions versus social rules. American Psychologist 54:408–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kimura, D. (1999) Sex and cognition. MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sell, A., Tooby, J. & Cosmides, L. (2005) Physical strength predicts entitlement, anger, and attitudes about aggression in men. Paper presented at the Human Behavior and Evolution Society Conference, Austin, Texas, June 2005.Google Scholar
Wilder, J. A., Mobasher, Z. & Hammer, M. F. (2004) Genetic evidence for unequal effective population sizes of human females and males. Molecular Biology and Evolution 21:2047–57.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wilson, M. & Daly, M. (1997) Life expectancy, economic inequality, homicide, and reproductive timing in Chicago neighborhoods. British Medical Journal 314:1271–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, M., Daly, M. & Pound, N. (2002) An evolutionary psychological perspective on the modulation of competitive confrontation and risk-taking. In: Hormones, brain and behavior, vol. 5., ed. Pfaff, D. W., Arnold, A. P., Etgen, A. M., Fahrbach, S. E., Rubin, R. T., pp. 381–408. Academic Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, M., Daly, M. & Pound, N. (2009) Sex differences and intrasexual variation in competitive confrontation and risk-taking: An evolutionary psychological perspective. In: Hormones, brain and behavior, 2nd edition, ed. Pfaff, D. W., Arnold, A. P., Etgen, A. M., Fahrbach, S. E., Rubin, R. T., pp. 2825–52. Elsevier.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, W. & Eagly, A. H. (2002) A cross-cultural analysis of the behavior of women and men: Implications for the origins of sex differences. Psychological Bulletin 128:699–727.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed