Are women always less aggressive than men? A review of the experimental literature.

Abstract

The experimental literature on adult female and male aggression is reviewed. Commonly held hypotheses that men are almost always more physically aggressive than women and that women display more indirect or displaced aggression were not supported. Evidence of the type of sex differences that sex role stereotypes would predict seemed to appear only in self-report measures of general hostility or aggressiveness. Factors that are related to observed sex differences include sex of the instigator and/or victim of aggression, empathy with the victim, guilt, and aggression anxiety. When aggression is perceived as justified or prosocial and when these other factors are controlled, women may act as aggressively as men. Some evidence suggests that men and women react differentially to external aggressive cues and provocation. What may be angerprovoking for men may be anxiety-provoking for women. The hypothesis that sex differences in aggression are biologically determined was not examined. The present discussion should be viewed as an attempt to lay the groundwork for an understanding of the phenotypic expression of whatever genetic differences may exist.Clear sex-related differences in the volume of physical aggression exist in the real world, with men as the pacesetters (e.g., Eron, Huesmann, Lefkowitz, & Walder, 1972) and most often the victims (Stark & McEvoy, 1970). However, we know that women are quite capable of aggression. For example, wives are close to equality with husbands in the United States when it comes to nonlethal violence in the family (Maurer, 1973;Straus, Gelles, & Steinmetz, 1974), and some researchers have concluded that women are worse child abusers than are men (Gelles, 1973;Gil, 1968Gil, , 1970. Furthermore, there is some evidence that violent crime rates for younger women are rising, Authors' names are in alphabetical order. The authors wish to thank Leonard Berkowitz and Julia Sherman for comments on earlier drafts of this article.

Gender differences in aggression as a function of provocation: A meta-analysis.

“…2 The reference sections of several relevant meta-analyses (Carlson, 1988;Carlson et al, 1989;Carlson & Miller, 1988;Eagly & Steffen, 1986) and qualitative reviews (Frodi et al, 1977;White, 1983) were examined for further citations. Finally, a PsycLIT search of psychological abstracts and an ERIC search was conducted for the years of 1974 to 1994 and 1966 to 1994, respectively, using the key words aggression, hostile behavior, gender, mood, and human sex differences.…”

“…Type of provocation and other contextual variables also affect the magnitude of gender differences in aggression. The results support a social role analysis of gender differences in aggression and counter A. H. Eagly and V. Steffen's (1986) meta-analytic inability to confirm an attenuating effect of provocation on gender differences in aggression.Many experimental studies of adult aggression show that men are more aggressive than women (for reviews, see Eagly & Steffen, 1986;Frodi, Macaulay, & Thome, 1977;Hyde, 1984;and White, 1983). Earlier literature reviews (e.g., Maccoby & Jacklin, 1974;Terman& Tyler, 1954) tend to emphasize biological contributions to this difference more strongly than do later ones (e.g., Eagly & Steffen, 1986;Frodi et al, 1977;Hyde, 1984), and in more recent reviews, some scholars seriously question whether biology plays an important role in human aggression (e.g., Adams, 1992;Benton, 1992).…”

The Influence of Aggression-Evoking Cues on Aggressive Cognitions in Males and Females: Different Procedures – Similar Effects

“…The magnitude of the sex differences in aggression decreases significantly when aggression results in a less visible actor's suffering (Eagly and Steffen 1986), which is characteristic for relational and verbal aggression. Further, adolescent girls evaluate aggression as being more harmful than boys (Coyne et al 2006), whereas women perceive the same act of direct aggression as being more aggressive than men (Frodi et al 1977). From this point of view, the effect of aggression priming should not appear for physically aggressive cognitions, but rather for the relational and verbal subscales of the WCT.…”

The Effects of Self-Control, Parental Behaviors, and Marital Conflict on Boys' Aggression in Korean Upper Elementary School Students

“…Bushman and Frodi, Macaulay, and Thome(1977) Dodge, 1996;Schwartz et al, 1998). Crick & Dodge, 1996).…”