2 ms·

Lots of it boils down to risk. For sexual/reproductive reasons, men are more prone to risk - both behaviourally and generically. Evolution doesn't tend to favou

Lots of it boils down to risk. For sexual/reproductive reasons, men are more prone to risk - both behaviourally and generically. Evolution doesn't tend to favour risk-taking in the sex that carries and rears offspring. The number of women (not men) in a group is also the bottleneck to the group's ability to reproduce/recover population. Males are more fundamentally disposable, and have developed traits to fit into this niche. We have just about all of this in common with our closest ape relatives. I'm no researcher, but I've found the work of Frans de Waal and other primatologists enlightening.

NoImmatureAdHom 4y ago
This is correct. A couple hairs to split: I wouldn't say more "prone to risk", I'd say they have different risk preferences. It's not like one or the other attitude towards risk is better or worse, they're just more or less adaptive given a certain environment. I also wouldn't say men are disposable, as the story you tell at the group level is weak selection compared to at the individual level, but the gist is correct. Another way to look at it is: it's possible for males to win the genetic lottery, but impossible for females. The most reproductively successful men have had thousands of children, but women are limited to ~13 max. The upshot is that men have evolved to prefer risk more than women because the ceiling on payoffs is very high (i.e., you could get really rich, have lots of kids, multiple wives, tons of cattle), but for women the benefits of those huge lottery-winnings payoffs are much smaller in comparison to the costs (because you can only have 13 kids, and only slowly). In my head, this is the explanation for ~80% of the differences in behavior by sex.
- pedrosorio 4y ago
  > but women are limited to ~13 max Make that ~70: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-prolific-mother-ever https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-prol...
  - NoImmatureAdHom 4y ago
    Lol Lawd, all right, 95th%ile is 13 or something :-D

NoImmatureAdHom 4y ago

This is correct. A couple hairs to split: I wouldn't say more "prone to risk", I'd say they have different risk preferences. It's not like one or the other attitude towards risk is better or worse, they're just more or less adaptive given a certain environment. I also wouldn't say men are disposable, as the story you tell at the group level is weak selection compared to at the individual level, but the gist is correct. Another way to look at it is: it's possible for males to win the genetic lottery, but impossible for females. The most reproductively successful men have had thousands of children, but women are limited to ~13 max. The upshot is that men have evolved to prefer risk more than women because the ceiling on payoffs is very high (i.e., you could get really rich, have lots of kids, multiple wives, tons of cattle), but for women the benefits of those huge lottery-winnings payoffs are much smaller in comparison to the costs (because you can only have 13 kids, and only slowly). In my head, this is the explanation for ~80% of the differences in behavior by sex.

pedrosorio 4y ago
> but women are limited to ~13 max Make that ~70: https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-prolific-mother-ever https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-prol...
- NoImmatureAdHom 4y ago
  Lol Lawd, all right, 95th%ile is 13 or something :-D