Sex Differences in Everyday Risk-Taking Behavior in Humans

Abstract

Sexual selection theory predicts that males will tend to behave in ways that are more risky than females. We explored this in humans by studying two everyday situations (catching a bus and crossing a busy road). We show that humans are competent optimizers on such tasks, adjusting their arrival times at a bus stop so as to minimize waiting time. Nonetheless, single males pursue a more risky strategy than single females by cutting waiting times much finer. Males are also more likely than females to cross busy roads when it is risky to do so. More importantly, males are more likely to initiate a crossing in high risk conditions when there are females present in the immediate vicinity, but females do not show a comparable effect in relation to the number of males present. These results support the suggestion that risk-taking is a form of “showing off” used as mate advertisement.

The Young Male Cigarette and Alcohol Syndrome

“…Both physical risk taking (Frankenhuis, Dotsch, Karremans, & Wigboldus, 2010;Pawlowski, Atwal, & Dunbar, 2008;Ronay & Hippel, 2010) and financially risky decision making (Baker & Maner, 2008;McAlvanah, 2009;Wilson & Daly, 2004) are stimulated in a mating mind-set. Moreover, findings indicate that these male risky behaviors are strategic courtship displays, as men limit their risky signaling to situations where the odds of gaining reproductive benefits are high.…”

Gender Differences in Use of a Pedestrian Crossing: An Observational Study in Newcastle upon Tyne

“…The current study primarily aims to conceptually replicate previous studies such as Pawlowski et al (2008). It should be noted that multiple studies outside of evolutionary psychology have already suggested that gender differences in traffic behaviour exist, based on scenario studies (e.g., Holland & Hill, 2007) as well as via direct observation (e.g., Tom & Granié, 2011).…”

“…Men are also more likely to run red lights than women (e.g., Konecni, Ebbeson, & Konecni, 1976) and, perhaps unsurprisingly, are more likely to be involved in (lethal) car accidents (e.g., Waylen & McKenna, 2008). Also, in other traffic behaviours such as cycling (Cobey, Laan, Stulp, Buunk, & Pollet, 2013;Pai & Jou, 2014) or crossing (Pawlowski, Atwal, & Dunbar, 2008) men are more likely than women to exhibit risktaking behaviour.…”

The structure of dyadic conversations and sex differences in social style

“…In contrast, males' conversations remain largely unchanged by an audience: males compete no more with each other in the presence of females than they do when they are alone. Given that, from an evolutionary point of view, males compete for females, either competition for females is so intrinsic to male behaviour that female presence is not required to stimulate it (for an alternative example, see PAWŁOWSKI et al 2007), or else males are not competing for females directly but rather do so indirectly via competition for within-sex rank that continues even in the absence of females. Certainly, status differentiation is more apparent in male/male conversations, with the subordinate male demonstrating clear acceptance of a less intrusive role in most cases.…”