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VIRTUALISATION Study shows girls "ignore" while boys "grab" when competing
VIRTUALISATION Study shows girls "ignore" while boys "grab" when competing | Study shows girls "ignore" while boys "grab" when competing |
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| by William Atkins | |
| Sunday, 29 June 2008 | |
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Headed by Joyce F. Benenson, the paper “Sex differences in children's formation of exclusionary alliances under scarce resource conditions” was published online on June 16, 2008, in the journal Animal Behavior. Her fellow researchers include Timothy J. Antonellis, Benjamin J. Cotton, Kathleen E. Noddin, and Kristin A. Campbell, all of the Department of Psychology at Emmanuel College, Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A. Even though it is historically thought that boys are more competitive than girls, this study shows that boys and girls are both equally competitive, but in different ways. They state in their abstract, “Conclusions that human males behave more competitively than females have been tempered by recent findings that the two sexes use differing competitive strategies.” The researchers found that girls employ more subtle ways to complete, while boys use more direct methods. They continue to explain,“Theoretically, mammalian males generally gain more than females from using riskier strategies, whereas females have more to lose. Females therefore should compete using less risky strategies. Research with humans suggests that one of these may involve alliance and coalition formation. These diminish risk yet exact a cost in terms of payoffs, suggesting that they may elicit sex-differentiated patterns of use.” The researchers “… examined the hypothesis that early sex-differentiated patterns would appear in which human females would form exclusionary alliances under scarce resource conditions more than males would, whereas males would use individualistic strategies more than females would.” The researchers call the girls’ methods as “alliance and coalition formation.” That is, girls use social exclusion as a way to cause discomfort to the one they are competing against. They alienate themselves from the girl possessing the puppet. The boys used, what the researchers call, “riskier strategies.” That is, boys use more direct methods such as grabbing, demanding, and other aggressive actions to compete against other boys. What specifically did the researechers find in their study? Please read on. |
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