- Oxford Library of Psychology
- [UNTITLED]
- Short Contents
- Oxford Library of Psychology
- About the Editors
- Contributors
- Evolutionary Perspectives on Violence, Homicide, and War
- Violence Across Animals and Within Early Hominins
- Comparative Evolutionary Perspectives on Violence
- Intimate Partner Violence: War at Our Doorsteps
- Chastity, Fidelity, and Conquest: Biblical Rules for Women and War
- Filicide and Child Maltreatment: Prospects for Ultimate Explanation
- Siblicide in Humans and Other Species
- Familial Homicide-Suicide
- Suicide
- Evolutionary Perspectives on Male-Male Competition, Violence, and Homicide
- Evolutionary Psychological Perspectives on Sexual Offending: From Etiology to Intervention
- Women and Aggression
- Culture of Honor, Violence, and Homicide
- Sacrifice and Sacred Values: Evolutionary Perspectives on Religious Terrorism
- Animal Abuse and Cruelty
- If, When, and Why Adolescent Bullying Is Adaptive
- The Male Warrior Hypothesis: The Evolutionary Psychology of Intergroup Conflict, Tribal Aggression, and Warfare
- A Feminist Evolutionary Analysis of the Relationship Between Violence Against and Inequitable Treatment of Women, and Conflict Within and Between Human Collectives, Including Nation-States
- War Histories in Evolutionary Perspective: Insights From Prehistoric North America
- War, Evolution, and the Nature of Human Nature
- Parasite Stress, Collectivism, and Human Warfare
- Band of Brothers or Band of Siblings?: An Evolutionary Perspective on Sexual Integration of Combat Forces
- An Evolutionary Perspective on Child Development in the Context of War and Political Violence
- The Extremes of Conflict in Literature: Violence, Homicide, and War
- Why Religion Is Unable to Minimize Lethal and Nonlethal Societal Dysfunction Within and Between Nations
- Peace and the Human Animal: Toward Integration of Comparative Evolutionary Psychology and Peace Studies
- Resource Acquisition, Violence, and Evolutionary Consciousness
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
Sex differences in aggression can be traced ultimately to sex differences in parental investment. Higher variance in reproductive success in men, resulting from lower parental investment, creates incentives for competition to achieve intrasexual dominance, while women's greater investment and role in caring for offspring creates costs for dangerous confrontations. Data suggest that, at a proximal psychological level, sex differences in fear, but not anger, mediate involvement in aggression. Although biparental care brings with it two-way sexual selection, female competition is chiefly conducted either intersexually (through the display of qualities attractive to men) or through indirect aggression (gossip and social exclusion), both of which are low-risk strategies. Under resource scarcity, competition between women can escalate to direct confrontation, but even then the severity of aggression is lower than that of men. Women and men are equal in the frequency of aggressive acts directed at intimate partners, which poses an explanatory problem for any theory of sex differences in aggression. We propose that the fear reduction in women necessary to permit sexual intimacy, possibly mediated by oxytocin, also diminishes women's normal restraint on aggressive behavior.
Keywords: women, intrasexual, intersexual, fear, anger, maternal, intimate partner, competition, jealousy
Anne Campbell, Department of Psychology, Durham University, Durham, England, UK
Catharine Cross, Department of Psychology, Durham University, Durham, England, UK
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- Oxford Library of Psychology
- [UNTITLED]
- Short Contents
- Oxford Library of Psychology
- About the Editors
- Contributors
- Evolutionary Perspectives on Violence, Homicide, and War
- Violence Across Animals and Within Early Hominins
- Comparative Evolutionary Perspectives on Violence
- Intimate Partner Violence: War at Our Doorsteps
- Chastity, Fidelity, and Conquest: Biblical Rules for Women and War
- Filicide and Child Maltreatment: Prospects for Ultimate Explanation
- Siblicide in Humans and Other Species
- Familial Homicide-Suicide
- Suicide
- Evolutionary Perspectives on Male-Male Competition, Violence, and Homicide
- Evolutionary Psychological Perspectives on Sexual Offending: From Etiology to Intervention
- Women and Aggression
- Culture of Honor, Violence, and Homicide
- Sacrifice and Sacred Values: Evolutionary Perspectives on Religious Terrorism
- Animal Abuse and Cruelty
- If, When, and Why Adolescent Bullying Is Adaptive
- The Male Warrior Hypothesis: The Evolutionary Psychology of Intergroup Conflict, Tribal Aggression, and Warfare
- A Feminist Evolutionary Analysis of the Relationship Between Violence Against and Inequitable Treatment of Women, and Conflict Within and Between Human Collectives, Including Nation-States
- War Histories in Evolutionary Perspective: Insights From Prehistoric North America
- War, Evolution, and the Nature of Human Nature
- Parasite Stress, Collectivism, and Human Warfare
- Band of Brothers or Band of Siblings?: An Evolutionary Perspective on Sexual Integration of Combat Forces
- An Evolutionary Perspective on Child Development in the Context of War and Political Violence
- The Extremes of Conflict in Literature: Violence, Homicide, and War
- Why Religion Is Unable to Minimize Lethal and Nonlethal Societal Dysfunction Within and Between Nations
- Peace and the Human Animal: Toward Integration of Comparative Evolutionary Psychology and Peace Studies
- Resource Acquisition, Violence, and Evolutionary Consciousness
- Index
