Intrasexual competition among males: Competitive towards men, prosocial towards women

A.P. Buunk*, K. Massar

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

In a study among 40 males and 56 females, participants engaged in a series of decomposed social games in which they had to divide resources between themselves and either a same-sex or an opposite sex other. As predicted on the basis of theorizing on sexual selection, males behaved more competitively towards another man than towards a woman, whereas women did not distinguish between men and women in their degree of competitiveness. At the same time, men behaved more prosocially towards women than women did towards men. In addition, after dividing resources between themselves and another man in the decomposed game task, men showed higher levels of intrasexual competition (assessed with a questionnaire) than after dividing resources between themselves and a woman, whereas for women the sex of the other did not affect their level of intrasexual competition. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)818-821
Number of pages4
JournalPersonality and Individual Differences
Volume52
Issue number7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2012

Keywords

  • Intrasexual competition
  • Decomposed games
  • Sex differences
  • Generosity
  • SOCIAL VALUE ORIENTATION
  • FEMALE AGGRESSION
  • ATTRACTIVENESS
  • INVESTMENT
  • GENEROSITY
  • TACTICS
  • CHOICE
  • COST

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