Women have evolved to be 'indirectly aggressive', say scientists
Study explores the ways women compete with each other without
resorting to violence
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Tina Fey's Mean Girl produced many
pieces of immortal wisdom - none better than the girls
assessment of Halloween |
An authoritative study has explored the scientific basis for
"competition and aggression" between women, and found that they have
most likely evolved to be mean to one another.
Dedicating a whole journal issue to the theme and inviting
international evidence from across disciplines, the research found that
the "constraints of offspring production and care" meant that it
favoured the female of the species to resort to low-risk forms of
aggression.
Scientists said that since Darwin first put forward his theories on
reproductive competition, extensive research has been done on how more
expendable men developed larger body size, use of weaponry and
ritualised displays of aggression. Little work has gone into the
equivalent for women, however, with studies more likely to focus on more
direct reproductive traits such as mate selection.
"Despite a history of being largely overlooked, evidence is now
accumulating for the widespread evolutionary significance of female
competition," the report's authors Paula Stockley and Anne Campbell
said.
Writing in the introduction to Philosophical Transactions of the
Royal Society B, they described their work as a first step in "a new
expansion of interest in female competition".
"Females compete for resources needed to survive and reproduce, and
for preferred mates," Dr Stockley said.
-The Independent
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