Psychology Commons^™

Sex Differences In Cooperation: A Meta-Analytic Review Of Social Dilemmas, Daniel Balliet, Norman P. Li, Shane J. Macfarlan, Mark Van Vugt

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Although it is commonly believed that women are kinder and more cooperative than men, there is conflicting evidence for this assertion. Current theories of sex differences in social behavior suggest that it may be useful to examine in what situations men and women are likely to differ in cooperation. Here, we derive predictions from both sociocultural and evolutionary perspectives on context-specific sex differences in cooperation, and we conduct a unique meta-analytic study of 272 effect sizes—sampled across 50 years of research—on social dilemmas to examine several potential moderators. The overall average effect size is not statistically different from zero (d …