Chapter 5 - Notes

Question 1

HOW ARE WE INFLUENCED
BY BIOLOGY?

Answer 1

1. Genes, Evolution, and Behavior

• Organisms have many and varied offspring.
• Those offspring compete for survival in their environment.
• Certain biological and behavioral variations increase their chances of survival and reproduction in that environment.
• Those offspring that do survive and reproduce are more likely to pass their genes to ensuing generations.
• Thus, over time, population characteristics may change.

Evolutionary psychology posits that men favor fertility in women, generally signaled by a youthful and healthy appearance.

• Men with these preferences, they note, were the most likely to have many offspring. That may not be the conscious desire of most men today, but their evolutionary history unconsciously pulls them to prefer these characteristics.

2. Biology and Gender

Evolutionary psychology studies note that sex differences in mate preferences are very large compared to most other psychological sex differences (Conroy-Beam et al., 2015). They are also fairly universal across cultures:

• Studies in 37 cultures, from Australia to Zambia, reveal that men everywhere feel attracted to women whose physical features, such as youthful faces and forms, suggest fertility. Women everywhere feel attracted to men whose wealth, power, and ambition promise resources for protecting and nurturing offspring. But there are gender similarities, too: Whether residing on an Indonesian island or in urban São Paulo, both women and men desire kindness, love, and mutual attraction.
• Men everywhere tend to be most attracted to women whose age and features suggest peak fertility. For teen boys, this is a woman several years older than themselves. For men in their mid-20s, it’s women their own age. For older men, it’s younger women; the older the man, the greater the age difference he prefers when selecting a mate (Kenrick et al., 2009). This pattern appears worldwide, in European singles ads, Indian marital ads, in online dating, and marriage records from the Americas, Africa, and the Philippines (Singh, 1993; Singh & Randall, 2007), and—though to a somewhat lesser extent—among gays and lesbians, with many gay men preferring younger partners and lesbian women preferring older partners (Conway et al., 2015). Women of all ages prefer men just slightly older than themselves. Men married to physically attractive wives reported higher martial satisfaction, whereas husbands’ physical attractiveness had little impact on wives’ satisfaction (Meltzer et al., 2014). Again, say the evolutionary psychologists, we see that natural selection predisposes men to feel attracted to female features associated with fertility.
• Monthly fertility also matters. Women’s behaviors, scents, and voices provide subtle clues to their ovulation, which men can detect (Haselton & Gildersleeve, 2011). When at peak fertility, women express greater apprehensiveness of potentially threatening men and a greater ability to detect men’s sexual orientation (Gildersleeve et al., 2014). They also behave more flirtatiously with men, particularly men who are confident and socially dominant (Cantu et al., 2014).

3. Gender and Hormones

4. Reflections on Evolutionary Psychology

Question 2

HOW ARE WE INFLUENCED
BY CULTURE?

Answer 2

• We humans have been selected not only for big brains and biceps but also for culture.
  We come prepared to learn language and to bond and cooperate with others in securing
  food, caring for young, and protecting ourselves. Nature therefore predisposes us to learn
  whatever culture we are born into. The cultural perspective highlights human adaptability.
  People’s “natures are alike,” said Confucius; “it is their habits that carry them far apart.”
  And we are still far apart, note world culture researchers Ronald Inglehart and Christian
  Welzel (2005). Despite increasing education, “we are not moving toward a uniform global
  culture: cultural convergence is not taking place. A society’s cultural heritage is remarkably
  enduring” (p. 46).

Question 3

HOW ARE FEMALES AND MALES
ALIKE AND DIFFERENT?

Answer 3

Compared to males, the average female:

• has 70% more fat, has 40% less muscle, is 5 inches shorter, and weighs 40 pounds less;
• is more sensitive to smells and sounds;
• is twice as likely to experience anxiety disorders or depression (Salk et al., 2017).

Compared to females, the average male is

• slower to enter puberty (by about two years) but quicker to die (by four years,
  worldwide);
• three times more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD (attention-deficit/hyperactivity
  disorder), four times more likely to commit suicide, and five times more likely to
  be killed by lightning;
• more capable of wiggling his ears.

Social Dominance

• In 2017, women were but 24% of the world’s legislators (IPU, 2017).
• Men more than women are concerned with social dominance and are more likely to favor conservative political candidates and programs that preserve group inequality (Eagly et al., 2004; Sidanius & Pratto, 1999).
• Men are half of all jurors but the vast majority of elected jury leaders; men are also the leaders of most ad hoc laboratory groups (Colarelli et al., 2006; Hastie et al., 2002).
• In Britain, men hold 74% of top-100 corporate board positions (BIS, 2015).
• Women in most countries earn an average of 60 to 75% of men’s wages, according to the World Bank (World Bank, 2012). Only about one-fifth of this wage gap is attributable to gender differences in education, work experience, or job characteristics (World Bank, 2003).

Sexuality

Question 4

WHAT CAN WE CONCLUDE ABOUT
GENES, CULTURE, AND GENDER?

Answer 4

A Social-Role Theory of Gender Differences in Social Behavior:

• Various influences, including childhood experiences and factors, bend males and females toward differing roles. It is the expectations and the skills and beliefs associated with these differing roles that affect men’s and women’s behavior.