Sex Differences in Prosociality are not due to Socialization

Sex Differences in Prosociality are not due to Socialization

Some claim that increased prosocial and conforming behavior in females is a result of socialization, and that males are "allowed" to be more antisocial, therefore act more antisocial, and that females are more conforming and prosocial because they are expected to be. In this post, I debunk this myth, and explain the real reasons why boys are more antisocial, and debunk the myth that males are treated more permissively than females.

Males Are Not Let Off The Hook More

It has been repeatedly demonstrated over several studies that boys in school recieve forms of discipline and punishment over four times the amount that girls in school do (Skiba et al. 2002). This is in part because boys misbehave more than girls, however, it has been shown that male students are 1.6 times *more* likely to recieve punishment for the same misbehavior than female students are (Finn & Servoss 2013). When adding race into the equation, the order of most likely to be punished to least likely orders from black males, white males, black females, and white females, white females being the least likely to recieve forms of punishment for misbehavior (Skiba et al. 2002)(Finn & Servoss 2013). For race, discrimination plays a larger role than gender, however a bias to punish black students and male students over white or female students has been proven to exist (Skiba et al. 2002)(Finn & Servoss 2013). This does not just occur in schools: it has been shown that parents are more likely to punish male children than female children, and female children recieve far less parental punishment than male children do (Mehlhausen-Hassoen 2021). This study also found that violent mothers are percieved more favorably than violent fathers. Into adulthood, men are treated more harshly by the judicial system at every level (Kratcoski & Scheuerman 1974). Finally, it has been shown that the behaviors, attitudes, and intentions of women are rated more far more favorably than of men (Eagly et al. 1991), and men are blamed more for outcomes, and women are more often given the benefit of the doubt (Erkal et al. 2023). Overall, this shows that men are not treated more permissibly for antisocial behavior, and in fact women are treated much more favorably for the same behaviors when women perpetrate them. The somewhat common perception that men are treated more favorably, might reflect that the individuals who claim this have a degree of bias against men and this belief reflects their bias (Eagly et al. 1991).

Why are males more antisocial?

At a biological level, testosterone and oxytocin are part of what mediate the difference between antisocial behaviors in men and women. Testosterone levels have repeatedly been shown to predict antisocial, delinquent, aggressive, and dominant behaviors in adolescents (Reynolds et al. 2007)(Rowe et al. 2003)(Schaal et al. 1996)(Reardon et al. 2016)(Dawes et al. 1999)(van Bokhoven et al. 2006). Testosterone levels in early childhood are associated with high moodiness, low sociability, high aggression, and traits of ADHD and psychopathy (Strong & Dabbs 2000)(Chance et al. 2000)(Sanchez-Martin et al. 2000)(Maras et al. 2003). Testosterone exposure as a fetus has been shown to predict disruptive behavioral disorders like ADHD, conduct disorder, and oppositional defiant disorder (Wang et al. 2017)(Roberts & Martel 2013)(Liu et al. 2012)(Isik et al. 2020). The Y chromosome has also been linked to antisocial behavior (Jarvik et al. 1973)(Gosavi et al. 2009)(Soudek & Laraya 1974). Imprinted genes, which are genes whose expression depends on whether the gene was inherited from the mother or father, and are responsible for many physiological differences between males and females, are linked to impulsive, selfish, and unempathetic behaviors when expression is male typical (Badcock & Crespi 2006), and disorders like autism and adhd (Byars et al. 2014). At an evolutionary level, the reason for these differences is that there is a conflict between selection for genes and traits in men and women, as there is a massive difference between males and females in what it takes to reproduce and the potential costs associated with reproduction - behaviorally, this makes males more burdening on their mothers through phenotypes such as more demanding behavior and larger size at birth, and females more cooperative behavior and smaller size at birth (Badcock & Crespi 2006)(Byars et al. 2014). Genetic conflict between males and females exists in most species and correlates to similar behavioral and physical traits accross species, imprinted genes being first discovered in mice in the early 1980s (Ferguson-Smith & Bourchis 2018). Oxytocin is higher in females, and estrogen increases oxytocin, and oxytocin is linked to empathy, cooperation, and pro-social behavior - oxytocin largely opposing testosterone in its effects (Crespi 2016). Findings with testosterone also apply to transgender men undergoing gender affirming testosterone replacement therapy (Motta et al. 2018). Androgenic steroids which act on testosterone receptors are shown to increase aggressive and criminal behavior (Skarberg et al. 2010). Women with PCOS, a condition characterized by high testosterone levels, are more prone to criminal behavior than women without PCOS (Gotby et al. 2015). Primitive societies also show similar sex differences in behavior comparable to modern societies (Kaczynski 2008).

1. Skiba et al. (2002) The color of discipline: Sources of racial and gender disproportionality in school punishment

2. Finn & Servoss (2013) Misbehavior, suspensions, and security measures in high school: Racial/ethnic and gender differences

3. Mehlhausen-Hassoen (2021) Gender-specific differences in corporal punishment and children’s perceptions of their mothers’ and fathers’ parenting

4. Kratcoski & Scheuerman (1974) Incarcerated male and female offenders' perceptions of their experiences in the criminal justice system

5. Eagly et al. (1991) Are Women Evaluated More Favorably Than Men?: An Analysis of Attitudes, Beliefs, and Emotions

6. Reynolds et al. (2007) Testosterone Levels and Sexual Maturation Predict Substance Use Disorders in Adolescent Boys: A Prospective Study

7. Rowe et al. (2003) Testosterone, antisocial behavior, and social dominance in boys: pubertal development and biosocial interaction

8. Schaal et al. (1996) Male testosterone linked to high social dominance but low physical aggression in early adolescence

9. Reardon et al. (2016) Adolescent personality as risk and resiliency in the testosterone–externalizing association

10. Dawes et al. (1999) Hormonal and behavioral homeostasis in boys at risk for substance abuse

11. Strong & Dabbs (2000) Testosterone and behavior in normal young children

12. Chance et al. (2000) Testosterone, intelligence and behavior disorders in young boys

13. Sanchez-Martin et al. (2000) Relating testosterone levels and free play social behavior in male and female preschool children

14. Maras et al. (2003) Association of testosterone and dihydrotestosterone with externalizing behavior in adolescent boys and girls

15. van Bokhoven et al. (2006) Salivary testosterone and aggression, delinquency, and social dominance in a population-based longitudinal study of adolescent males

16. Wang et al. (2017) Potential role of pre-and postnatal testosterone levels in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: is there a sex difference?

17. Roberts & Martel (2013) Prenatal testosterone and preschool disruptive behavior disorders

18. Liu et al. (2012) Association between a marker for prenatal testosterone exposure and externalizing behavior problems in children

19. Isik et al. (2020) The Relationship between Second-to-Fourth Digit Ratios, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms, Aggression, and Intelligence Levels in Boys with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

20. Jarvik et al. (1973) Human aggression and the extra Y chromosome: Fact or fantasy?

21. Gosavi et al. (2009) Cytogenetic study in criminals (murderers): Role of XYY chromosome in criminality

22. Soudek & Laraya (1974) Longer Y chromosome in criminals

23. Badcock & Crespi (2006) Imbalanced genomic imprinting in brain development: an evolutionary basis for the aetiology of autism

24. Byars et al. (2014) Opposite risk patterns for autism and schizophrenia are associated with normal variation in birth size: phenotypic support for hypothesized diametric gene-dosage effects

25. Ferguson-Smith & Bourchis (2018) The discovery and importance of genomic imprinting

26. Crespi (2016) Oxytocin, testosterone, and human social cognition

27. Motta et al. (2018) Does testosterone treatment increase anger expression in a population of transgender men?

28. Skarberg et al. (2010) Is there an association between the use of anabolic-androgenic steroids and criminality?

29. Gotby et al. (2015) Congenital adrenal hyperplasia, polycystic ovary syndrome and criminal behavior: a Swedish population based study

30. Erkal et al. (2023) Do women receive less blame than men? Attribution of outcomes in a prosocial setting

31. Kaczynski (2008) The Truth About Primitive Life: A Critique of Anarchoprimitivism