Sex differences in behavioral and hormonal response to social threat: commentary on Taylor et al. (2000)

Taylor and colleagues proposed that women uniquely respond to stressors by tending to children and befriending other women rather than by fighting or fleeing (S. E. Taylor et al., 2000). In this article, the authors expand Taylor et al.'s evolutionary frame and incorporate several unique aspects of human social dynamics. First, humans are characterized by extensive paternal investment, and thus men's tending is predicted and observed in some stressful contexts. Second, the dynamics of women's befriending suggest an evolutionary elaboration of the mechanisms that support reciprocal altruism. Third, coalitional male-male competition indicates that men's befriending is a predicted component of their fight-or-flight response. Finally, men's tending should result in the evolution of female-female competition over this form of parental investment.