Staying alive: Evolution, culture, and women's intrasexual aggression

1999 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 203-214 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne Campbell
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Paternal Care ◽  
Indirect Aggression ◽  
Female Competition ◽  
Dominance Hierarchies ◽  
Scarce Resources ◽  
Bodily Injury ◽  
Hierarchy Formation

Females' tendency to place a high value on protecting their own lives enhanced their reproductive success in the environment of evolutionary adaptation because infant survival depended more upon maternal than on paternal care and defence. The evolved mechanism by which the costs of aggression (and other forms of risk taking) are weighted more heavily for females may be a lower threshold for fear in situations which pose a direct threat of bodily injury. Females' concern with personal survival also has implications for sex differences in dominance hierarchies because the risks associated with hierarchy formation in nonbonded exogamous females are not offset by increased reproductive success. Hence among females, disputes do not carry implications for status with them as they do among males, but are chiefly connected with the acquisition and defence of scarce resources. Consequently, female competition is more likely to take the form of indirect aggression or low-level direct combat than among males. Under patriarchy, men have held the power to propagate images and attributions which are favourable to the continuance of their control. Women's aggression has been viewed as a gender-incongruent aberration or dismissed as evidence of irrationality. These cultural interpretations have “enhanced” evolutionarily based sex differences by a process of imposition which stigmatises the expression of aggression by females and causes women to offer exculpatory (rather than justificatory) accounts of their own aggression.

scholarly journals How is maternal survival related to reproductive success?

1999 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 236-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
X. T. Wang ◽  
Ralph Hertwig
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Explanatory Power ◽  
Maternal Survival ◽  
Target Article ◽  
Risk Taking Behaviors

Campbell's target article is a stimulating attempt to extend our understanding of sex differences in risk-taking behaviors. However, Campbell does not succeed in demonstrating that her account adds explanatory power to those (e.g., Daly & Wilson 1994) previously proposed. In particular, little effort was made to explore the causal links between survival (staying alive) and reproduction.

Let's talk about sex: what influences researchers’ perceptions of sex differences in animal behaviour?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pietro Pollo ◽  
Michael M. Kasumovic
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Mate Choice ◽  
Sex Roles ◽  
Paternal Care ◽  
Female Competition ◽  
Traditional Theory ◽  
Research Experience ◽  
Research Experiences ◽  
Male Mate ◽  
Taxonomic Groups

The traditional theory of sexual selection posits the idea of sex roles: females should be choosy and caring, while males should be competitive and promiscuous. Despite criticism of these stereotypes from some evolutionary biologists, sex roles still appear as a norm in the literature. This may be because scientists anthropomorphize animal behaviours, which raises the question of whether human traits and experiences can influence one’s perception regarding sex differences in nature. Here we test whether age, gender, country, and research experiences are associated with different perceptions of sex roles in nature. We conducted a survey in which we asked participants about their perception of the frequency that certain behaviours associated with sex roles (promiscuity, mate choice, intrasexual competition, and parental care) occur in non-human animals for each sex. We found that participants’ country, research experience with certain taxonomic groups and research experience with sex-specific topics were associated with different perceptions of sex differences in non-human animals. Participants from more gender unequal countries showed greater agreement with the idea of sex roles. In contrast, participants who had experience with mechanisms not predicted by the idea of sex roles such as male mate choice, paternal care, and female-female competition, showed greater disagreement with the idea of sex roles than other participants. Our study reveals that personal experiences from inside and outside of academia are associated with different perspectives on sex roles. We suggest that increasing social and research diversity may benefit the study of behavioural patterns related to reproduction.

scholarly journals Female competition in chimpanzees

2013 ◽  
Vol 368 (1631) ◽  
pp. 20130077 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anne E. Pusey ◽  
Kara Schroepfer-Walker
Keyword(s):  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Paternal Care ◽  
Newborn Infants ◽  
Female Competition ◽  
Adult Males ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Adult Females ◽  
Different Populations ◽  
Access To Food ◽  
Abundance And Distribution

Female chimpanzees exhibit exceptionally slow rates of reproduction and raise their offspring without direct paternal care. Therefore, their reproductive success depends critically on long-term access to high-quality food resources over a long lifespan. Chimpanzee communities contain multiple adult males, multiple adult females and their offspring. Because males are philopatric and jointly defend the community range while most females transfer to new communities before breeding, adult females are typically surrounded by unrelated competitors. Communities are fission–fusion societies in which individuals spend time alone or in fluid subgroups, whose size depends mostly on the abundance and distribution of food. To varying extents in different populations, females avoid direct competition by foraging alone or in small groups in distinct, but overlapping core areas within the community range to which they show high fidelity. Although rates of aggression are low, females compete for space and access to food. High rank correlates with high reproductive success, and high-ranking females win direct contests for food and gain preferential access to resource-rich sites. Females are aggressive to immigrant females and even kill the newborn infants of community members. The intensity of such aggression correlates with population density. These patterns are compared to those in other species, including humans.

Risk-taking, fear, dominance, and testosterone

1999 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 214-215 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Archer
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Sex Difference ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Selective Advantage ◽  
Human Sex Differences ◽  
Dominance Hierarchies ◽  
Selection Pressures ◽  
Human Aggression ◽  
Absence Of Evidence ◽  
The Impact

Campbell's analysis of the evolution of human sex differences to include selection pressures on the female is generally welcomed. This commentary raises some specific issues about the evidence cited: the impact of paternal death on survival prospects; a possible mechanism underlying a sex difference in fear; the selective advantage of dominance hierarchies; and the absence of evidence that testosterone causes human aggression.

scholarly journals Sex differences in helping effort reveal the effect of future reproduction on cooperative behaviour in birds

2018 ◽  
Vol 285 (1885) ◽  
pp. 20181164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip A. Downing ◽  
Ashleigh S. Griffin ◽  
Charlie K. Cornwallis
Keyword(s):  
Sex Differences ◽  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Kin Selection ◽  
Cooperative Behaviour ◽  
The Future ◽  
Helping Behaviour ◽  
Future Reproduction ◽  
Selection For ◽  
Family Groups

The evolution of helping behaviour in species that breed cooperatively in family groups is typically attributed to kin selection alone. However, in many species, helpers go on to inherit breeding positions in their natal groups, but the extent to which this contributes to selection for helping is unclear as the future reproductive success of helpers is often unknown. To quantify the role of future reproduction in the evolution of helping, we compared the helping effort of female and male retained offspring across cooperative birds. The kin selected benefits of helping are equivalent between female and male helpers—they are equally related to the younger siblings they help raise—but the future reproductive benefits of helping differ because of sex differences in the likelihood of breeding in the natal group. We found that the sex which is more likely to breed in its natal group invests more in helping, suggesting that in addition to kin selection, helping in family groups is shaped by future reproduction.

Sexual Competition among Women

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Arnocky ◽  
Tracy Vaillancourt
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Physical Attractiveness ◽  
Romantic Partners ◽  
Indirect Aggression ◽  
Female Competition ◽  
Biparental Care ◽  
Same Sex ◽  
Sexual Competition ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Opposite Sex

Darwin (1871) observed in his theory of evolution by means of sexual selection that “it is the males who fight together and sedulously display their charms before the female” (p. 272). Researchers examining intrasexual competition have since focused disproportionately on male competition for mates, with female competition receiving far less attention. In this chapter, we review evidence that women do indeed compete with one another to secure and maintain reproductive benefits. We begin with an overview of the evolutionary theory of competition among women, with a focus on biparental care and individual differences in men’s mate value. We discuss why competition among women is characteristically different from that of men and highlight evidence supporting women’s use of epigamic display of physical attractiveness characteristics and indirect aggression toward same-sex peers and opposite-sex romantic partners as sexually competitive tactics. Finally, individual differences in competition among women are discussed.

Feminist and Evolutionary Perspectives of Female-Female Competition, Status Seeking, and Social Network Formation

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurette T. Liesen
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Reproductive Success ◽  
Reproductive Strategies ◽  
Network Formation ◽  
Female Competition ◽  
Status Seeking ◽  
Social Network Formation ◽  
Evolutionary Perspectives

During the 1980s and 1990s, feminist evolutionists were instrumental in demonstrating that primate females, including girls and women, can be aggressive and seek status within their groups. Building on their insights, researchers from across disciplines have found that females use a variety of direct and indirect tactics as they pursue their reproductive success. To better understand women’s aggression and status seeking, one also must examine their social networks. Women must not only deal with the dynamics within their groups, they also must deal with pressures from other groups. Success in maintaining connections in one’s social network is vital for access to the various resources women need for their own reproductive success and to keep competitors in check. Overall, women’s social networks, while serving both supportive and competitive functions, profoundly impact on the reproductive future of women and especially the survival and future reproductive strategies of their children.

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