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

Author: Buunk, A.P.; Massar, K.

Description: 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 pro-socially 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.

Subject headings: Intrasexual Competition; Decomposed Games; Sex Differences; Generosity

Publication year: 2012

Journal or book title: Personality and Individual Differences

Volume: 52

Issue: 7

Pages: 818-821

Find the full text : https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191886912000268

Find more like this one (cited by): https://scholar.google.com/scholar?cites=13201460983774887895&as_sdt=1000005&sciodt=0,16&hl=en

Type: Journal Article

Serial number: 745