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Only as a last resort: Sociocultural differences between women and men explain women's heightened reaction to threat, not evolutionary principles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 July 2022

Jeffrey R. Huntsinger Open the ORCID record for Jeffrey R. Huntsinger [Opens in a new window]  and
Akila Raoul
Jeffrey R. Huntsinger
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL 60660, USA jhuntsinger@luc.edu araoul@luc.eduhttp://jeffreyhuntsinger.weebly.com/index.html
Akila Raoul
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL 60660, USA jhuntsinger@luc.edu araoul@luc.eduhttp://jeffreyhuntsinger.weebly.com/index.html
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Abstract

The target article proposed that women display greater self-protectiveness than men to major physical and social threats because such self-protective responses have higher fitness value for women than men. Rather than having evolutionary roots, we suggest the various physiological, behavioral, and emotional responses to social and physical threats exhibited more by women than men are instead rooted in sociocultural forces.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 45 , 2022 , e140
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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