Sex diffs in aggression

• Wilson and Daly found most murderers in detroit were young men

  29 of cases were murdered due to escalated showing off disputes
• Men are more aggressive as they face the most competition for mates in the past
• Women mainly limited by access to resources and different pressures and processes led to different psychological responses evolving men and women
• Buss - sex diffs in jealousy - Method

  • Cross-cultural questionnaire study
  • Hypothetical scenario that someone they knew were in serious romantic relationships were interested in someone else
  • Asked if emotional attachment to other person or sexual intercourse would be worse
• Buss - sex diffs in jealousy - Findings

  • Men report sexual infidelity as worse
  • 51% v 22% women chose sexual worse than emotional
• Buss - sex diffs in jealousy - Conclusions

  • Men's jealousy is innately triggered by the threat of uncertainty over paternity of children produced
  • Women more threatened by emotional involvement as it means the man could've left for another woman
• Buss - sex diffs in jealousy - Evaluation

  • Evidence consistent across different cultures
  • Questionnaires were based around a hypothetical situation and responses were to a multiple choice means validity is poor