No strong evidence for universal gender differences in the development of cooperative behaviour across societies

Bailey House; Joan B. Silk; Katherine McAuliffe

doi:10.1098/rstb.2021.0439

No strong evidence for universal gender differences in the development of cooperative behaviour across societies

Bailey House^*, Joan B. Silk, Katherine McAuliffe

^*Corresponding author for this work

Psychology

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Human cooperation varies both across and within societies, and developmental studies can inform our understanding of the sources of both kinds of variation. One key candidate for explaining within-society variation in cooperative behaviour is gender, but we know little about whether gender differences in cooperation take root early in ontogeny or emerge similarly across diverse societies. Here, we explore two existing cross-cultural datasets of 4- to 15-year-old children's preferences for equality in experimental tasks measuring prosociality (14 societies) and fairness (seven societies), and we look for evidence of (i) widespread gender differences in the development of cooperation, and (ii) substantial societal variation in gender differences. This cross-cultural approach is crucial for revealing universal human gender differences in the development of cooperation, and it helps answer recent calls for greater cultural …

Original language	English
Number of pages	14
Journal	Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Volume	378
Issue number	1868
Early online date	28 Nov 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0439
Publication status	Published - 16 Jan 2023

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10.1098/rstb.2021.0439

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abstract = "Human cooperation varies both across and within societies, and developmental studies can inform our understanding of the sources of both kinds of variation. One key candidate for explaining within-society variation in cooperative behaviour is gender, but we know little about whether gender differences in cooperation take root early in ontogeny or emerge similarly across diverse societies. Here, we explore two existing cross-cultural datasets of 4- to 15-year-old children's preferences for equality in experimental tasks measuring prosociality (14 societies) and fairness (seven societies), and we look for evidence of (i) widespread gender differences in the development of cooperation, and (ii) substantial societal variation in gender differences. This cross-cultural approach is crucial for revealing universal human gender differences in the development of cooperation, and it helps answer recent calls for greater cultural …",

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