Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 5, 2025
09:34
Assessing Differences in Sperm Competitive Ability in Drosophila
Published on: August 22, 2013
14.7K
Sustaining the potential for cooperation as female competitive strategy.
Alessandra Cassar1, Mary Rigdon2
1Department of Economics, University of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA 94117, USA.
Summary
Women’s lower competitiveness in economic games may be an adaptive strategy to encourage cooperation for raising offspring. When games involve parenting or prosocial elements, women’s competitiveness increases, revealing a complex social strategy.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary Psychology
- Behavioral Economics
- Game Theory
Background:
- Economic experiments often reveal lower competitiveness in women, posing an evolutionary puzzle.
- Accumulating resources and status typically benefits individuals and their offspring.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the evolutionary basis of female competitiveness using a cooperative breeding framework.
- To explore whether women’s competitiveness is context-dependent, particularly in relation to offspring and social cooperation.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing literature on gender differences in behavior and social responsiveness.
- Experimental economic games designed to evoke parenting frames, gender-typical interests, or prosocial options.
Main Results:
- Women's behavior is generally more reactive to social conditions in games compared to men's.
- Women exhibit comparable levels of competitiveness to men when games are framed around offspring benefits, gender-typical rewards, or prosocial outcomes.
Conclusions:
- Female competitiveness is not inherently lower but is strategically modulated.
- Women may suppress competitiveness to elicit cooperation, a complex adaptive strategy for offspring care.
- This strategy highlights the interplay between competitiveness and cooperation in female social behavior.
Related Concept Videos
01:27Coping Strategies: Problem Focused
104
Coping strategies are methods people use to manage, tolerate, or reduce the effects of stressors. These strategies involve both behavioral and psychological actions to handle stressful situations. One common approach is problem-focused coping, which aims to change or eliminate the source of stress rather than merely addressing its consequences. This method involves taking direct action to resolve the issue causing stress.
For example, consider a student who struggles to understand their...
For example, consider a student who struggles to understand their...
104
00:57Inclusive Fitness
36.2K
Most altruistic behavior—in which one animal helps another at a cost to themselves—occurs between relatives. Scientists think these altruistic behaviors evolved because they increase the inclusive fitness of the animal providing help.
36.2K
01:20Mate Choice
8.1K
Mate choice—the decision about whom to mate with—is a type of natural selection, since animals must reproduce to pass down their genes. Mate choice is also called intersexual selection because the behavior occurs between the sexes.
8.1K
01:06Natural Selection and Mating Preferences
141
The principle of natural selection posits that organisms better adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce. This principle is closely intertwined with mating preferences, a key aspect of sexual selection, which evolutionary psychologists believe is driven by instincts to propagate one's genes. Such instincts significantly influence mating behaviors and preferences between genders.
Females, due to their biological roles in conception, pregnancy, and nursing,...
Females, due to their biological roles in conception, pregnancy, and nursing,...
141
02:12Relationship Formation
40.2K
What do you think is the single most influential factor in determining with whom you become friends and whom you form romantic relationships? You might be surprised to learn that the answer is simple: the people with whom you have the most contact. This most important factor is proximity. You are more likely to be friends with people you have regular contact with. For example, there are decades of research that shows that you are more likely to become friends with people who live in your dorm,...
40.2K
02:06Social Exchange Theory
34.6K
We have discussed why we form relationships, what attracts us to others, and different types of love. But what determines whether we are satisfied with and stay in a relationship? One theory that provides an explanation is social exchange theory. According to social exchange theory, we act as naïve economists in keeping a tally of the ratio of costs and benefits of forming and maintaining a relationship with others (Rusbult & Van Lange, 2003).
34.6K