Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T12:21:58.590Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

(Super-)cultural clustering explains gender differences too

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 September 2022

Lynda G. Boothroyd Open the ORCID record for Lynda G. Boothroyd [Opens in a new window]  and
Catharine P. Cross
Lynda G. Boothroyd
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Durham University, Durham DH1 1HQ, UKl.g.boothroyd@dur.ac.ukhttp://www.boothlab.org
Catharine P. Cross
Affiliation:
School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9AJ, UK. cpc2@st-andrews.ac.uk
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The target paper shows how cultural adaptations to ecological problems can underpin “paradoxical” patterns of phenotypic variation. We argue: (1) Gendered social learning is a cultural adaptation to an ecological problem. (2) In evolutionarily novel environments, this adaptation generates arbitrary-gendered outcomes, leading to the paradoxical case of larger sex differences in more gender equal societies.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 45 , 2022 , e156
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abbate, J. (2017). Recoding gender: Women's changing participation in computing. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Anker, R. (1998). Gender and jobs: Sex segregation of occupations in the world. International Labour Office.Google Scholar
Boothroyd, L. G., Jucker, J.-L., Thornborrow, T., Barton, R. A., Burt, D. M., Evans, E. H., … Tovée, M. J. (2020). Television consumption drives perceptions of female body attractiveness in a population undergoing technological transition. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 119(4), 839–860. https://doi.org/10.1037/pspi0000224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davis, H. E., Stack, J., & Cashdan, E. (2021). Cultural change reduces gender differences in mobility and spatial ability among seminomadic pastoralist-forager children in northern Namibia. Human Nature, 32(1), 178–206. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-021-09388-7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Falk, A., & Hermle, J. (2018). Relationship of gender differences in preferences to economic development and gender equality. Science (New York, N.Y.), 362(6412), eaas9899. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aas9899.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fisher, S., & Jenson, J. (2017). Producing alternative gender orders: A critical look at girls and gaming. Learning, Media and Technology, 42(1), 87–99. https://doi.org/10.1080/17439884.2016.1132729.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ghaznavi, J., Grasso, K. L., & Taylor, L. D. (2017). Increasingly violent but still sexy: A decade of central female characters in top-grossing Hollywood and Bollywood film promotional material. International Journal of Communication, 11, 23–47.Google Scholar
Hines, M. (2020). Human gender development. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 118, 89–96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2020.07.018.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jucker, J.-L., Thornborrow, T., Beierholm, U., Burt, D. M., Barton, R. A., Evans, E. H., … Boothroyd, L. G. (2017). Nutritional status and the influence of TV consumption on female body size ideals in populations recently exposed to the media. Scientific Reports, 7(1), 8438. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-08653-z.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kramer, K. L., & Veile, A. (2018). Infant allocare in traditional societies. Physiology & Behavior, 193, 117–126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2018.02.054.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marlowe, F. (2001). Male contribution to diet and female reproductive success among foragers. Current Anthropology, 42(5), 755–760. https://doi.org/10.1086/323820.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marlowe, F. W. (2007). Hunting and gathering: The human sexual division of foraging labor. Cross-Cultural Research, 41(2), 170–195. https://doi.org/10.1177/1069397106297529.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meltzoff, A. N. (2007). “Like me”: A foundation for social cognition. Developmental Science, 10(1), 126–134. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2007.00574.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, T. J. H., Rendell, L. E., Ehn, M., Hoppitt, W., & Laland, K. N. (2012). The evolutionary basis of human social learning. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 279(1729), 653–662. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2011.1172.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Page, A., Hassan, A., Viguier, S., Dyble, M., Smith, D., & Migliano, A. (2021). Livelihood diversity and childcare in a foraging population, the Agta of Palanan, Philippines. Presented at the European Human Behaviour and Evolution Association, Krakow, Poland.Google Scholar
Schmitt, D. P. (2015). The evolution of culturally-variable sex differences: Men and women are not always different, but when they are…It appears not to result from patriarchy or sex role socialization. In Shackelford, T. K. & Hansen, R. D. (Eds.), The evolution of sexuality (pp. 221–256). Springer International. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-09384-0_11.Google Scholar
Sear, R. (2016). Beyond the nuclear family: An evolutionary perspective on parenting. Current Opinion in Psychology, 7, 98–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.08.013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smaldino, P. E., Lukaszewski, A., von Rueden, C., & Gurven, M. (2019). Niche diversity can explain cross-cultural differences in personality structure. Nature Human Behaviour, 3(12), 1276–1283. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0730-3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Swami, V., Frederick, D. A., Aavik, T., Alcalay, L., Allik, J., Anderson, D., … Zivcic-Becirevic, I. (2010). The attractive female body weight and female body dissatisfaction in 26 countries across 10 world regions: Results of the international body project I. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36(3), 309–325. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167209359702.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Trumble, B. C., Gaulin, S. J. C., Dunbar, M. D., Kaplan, H., & Gurven, M. (2016). No sex or age difference in dead-reckoning ability among Tsimane forager-horticulturalists. Human Nature, 27(1), 51–67. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-015-9246-3.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Vashro, L., Padilla, L., & Cashdan, E. (2016). Sex differences in mobility and spatial cognition: A test of the fertility and parental care hypothesis in Northwestern Namibia. Human Nature, 27(1), 16–34. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-015-9247-2.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wood, L. A., Kendal, R. L., & Flynn, E. G. (2013). Whom do children copy? Model-based biases in social learning. Developmental Review, 33(4), 341–356. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dr.2013.08.002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wood, W., & Eagly, A. H. (2012). Biosocial construction of sex differences and similarities in behavior. In Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 46, pp. 55–123). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-394281-4.00002-7.Google Scholar