Males' Greater Tolerance of Same-Sex Peers

Benenson, Joyce F.; Markovits, Henry; Fitzgerald, Caitlin A.; Geoffroy, Diana; Flemming, Julianne; Kahlenberg, Sonya M.; Wrangham, Richard W.

doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02269.x

Cited by 69 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 32 publications

(29 reference statements)

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“…Between 5 and 7 years, boys organize themselves into larger groups than girls across diverse cultures (Fine, 1980;Savin-Williams, 1980;Weisfeld, Omark, & Cronin, 1980). Third, the same-sex friendships of boys last longer than those of girls during middle childhood through adolescence (Benenson & Alavi, 2004;Benenson & Christakos, 2003;Kon & Losenkov, 1978) and young adulthood (Benenson et al, 2009). This is likely because boys exhibit greater tolerance for transgressions of same-sex friends during middle childhood (MacEvoy & Asher, 2012), adolescence (Whitesell & Harter, 1996), and adulthood (Benenson et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Boys affiliate more than girls with a familiar same-sex peer

Benenson

Quinn

Stella

2012

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Boys affiliate more than girls with a familiar same-sex peer

Benenson

Quinn

Stella

2012

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

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“…81-85); however, boys are reported to play in larger same-sex groups than girls, and recent research found greater social tolerance among males as predicted by the evolutionary need for male-male cooperation (e.g., refs. [86][87][88]. Likewise, east African adult male chimpanzees navigate a complicated social landscape involving both competition and cooperation (31).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Early social exposure in wild chimpanzees: Mothers with sons are more gregarious than mothers with daughters

Murray

Lonsdorf

Stanton

et al. 2014

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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In many mammals, early social experience is critical to developing species-appropriate adult behaviors. Although mother-infant interactions play an undeniably significant role in social development, other individuals in the social milieu may also influence infant outcomes. Additionally, the social skills necessary for adult success may differ between the sexes. In chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), adult males are more gregarious than females and rely on a suite of competitive and cooperative relationships to obtain access to females. In fission-fusion species, including humans and chimpanzees, subgroup composition is labile and individuals can vary the number of individuals with whom they associate. Thus, mothers in these species have a variety of social options. In this study, we investigated whether wild chimpanzee maternal subgrouping patterns differed based on infant sex. Our results show that mothers of sons were more gregarious than mothers of daughters; differences were especially pronounced during the first 6 mo of life, when infant behavior is unlikely to influence maternal subgrouping. Furthermore, mothers with sons spent significantly more time in parties containing males during the first 6 mo. These early differences foreshadow the well-documented sex differences in adult social behavior, and maternal gregariousness may provide sons with important observational learning experiences and social exposure early in life. The presence of these patterns in chimpanzees raises questions concerning the evolutionary history of differential social exposure and its role in shaping sex-typical behavior in humans.infant socialization | maternal behavior | chimpanzees | fission-fusion species E arly socialization is critical to developing social competency later in life. In mammals, mothers have enormous influence on their offspring's early social experience, with implications for adult social behavior. In humans, the relative contribution of parental and others' social influence on the development of sextypical behavior receives considerable attention and is often debated (1-4). Comparative research provides insight into the origins and development of sex differences in the absence of human cultural sex socialization. Decades of research in rodent and primate models have demonstrated that social deprivation curtails the development of species-appropriate behaviors (5-8) and cognition (9, 10). Primate mothers are critical for the normal social development of their infants (11-13), with classic studies demonstrating that maternal deprivation is associated with intense anxiety (14), inappropriate aggression (15), and an inability to form social relationships (16). The mother-infant relationship is therefore critical to proper social development; however, research also demonstrates the importance of the larger social milieu (17)(18)(19)(20). For example, a recent study in mice found that early interactions with mothers and peers independently shape adult behavior (21). Likewise, some negative impacts of maternal deprivati...

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“…Thus, although men can fight with each other, they may be more tolerant of defections because of the benefits of prolonged male cooperation (Benenson, 2009;Geary et al, 2003). In fact, there is some evidence that boys (and men), compared to girls (and women), have greater tolerance for within-group interpersonal conflict (Benenson & Christakos, 2003;Benenson et al, 2009;Fehr, Bernhard, & Rockenbach, 2008;Whitesell & Harter, 1996). If men are less likely to respond to defection with subsequent defection, the level of cooperation over time among men should be higher than among women.…”

Section: One-shot Versus Iterated Dilemmasmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex differences in cooperation: A meta-analytic review of social dilemmas.

Balliet

Macfarlan

et al. 2011

Psychological Bulletin

281

234

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Although it is commonly believed that women are kinder and more cooperative than men, there is conflicting evidence for this assertion. Current theories of sex differences in social behavior suggest that it may be useful to examine in what situations men and women are likely to differ in cooperation. Here, we derive predictions from both sociocultural and evolutionary perspectives on context-specific sex differences in cooperation, and we conduct a unique meta-analytic study of 272 effect sizes-sampled across 50 years of research-on social dilemmas to examine several potential moderators. The overall average effect size is not statistically different from zero (d ϭ -0.05), suggesting that men and women do not differ in their overall amounts of cooperation. However, the association between sex and cooperation is moderated by several key features of the social context: Male-male interactions are more cooperative than female-female interactions (d ϭ 0.16), yet women cooperate more than men in mixed-sex interactions (d ϭ -0.22). In repeated interactions, men are more cooperative than women. Women were more cooperative than men in larger groups and in more recent studies, but these differences disappeared after statistically controlling for several study characteristics. We discuss these results in the context of both sociocultural and evolutionary theories of sex differences, stress the need for an integrated biosocial approach, and outline directions for future research.

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Males' Greater Tolerance of Same-Sex Peers

Cited by 69 publications

References 32 publications

Boys affiliate more than girls with a familiar same-sex peer

Boys affiliate more than girls with a familiar same-sex peer

Early social exposure in wild chimpanzees: Mothers with sons are more gregarious than mothers with daughters

Sex differences in cooperation: A meta-analytic review of social dilemmas.

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