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Violence and Aggression in Women

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The Evolution of Violence

Part of the book series: Evolutionary Psychology ((EVOLPSYCH))

Abstract

While women’s aggression is less frequent and dangerous than men’s, it must be addressed in any complete explanatory account of human aggression. In this chapter, we first argue that the sex difference in aggression is the result not only of selection pressures favouring aggressive competition in males but also of selection pressures favouring the avoidance of injury in females. Second, we briefly review evidence for a number of possible proximate psychological mechanisms underlying the sex difference in aggression. We find that fear—rather than anger, impulsivity, or sensation seeking—shows consistent sex differences in the anticipated direction and is the strongest candidate for accounting for women’s relatively low involvement in aggression. Third, we discuss contextual and cultural effects which might modify women’s appraisals of danger and, in turn, influence their fear levels and tendency to use aggressive acts. In particular, we discuss intimate partner aggression: Here, women’s use of aggression appears highly sensitive to cultural effects, with the magnitude of the sex difference varying markedly. Finally, we offer suggestions for extending the study of female aggression using an evolutionary approach which explicitly focuses on interaction between psychological mechanisms and cultural factors.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Note also that the proportions of reported intimate aggression that reflect SCA as opposed to IT might also be expected to vary cross-culturally.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, KY16 9JP, St Andrews, UK

    Catharine P. Cross

  2. Department of Psychology, Durham University Science Site, DH1 3LE, Durham, UK

    Anne C. Campbell

Authors
  1. Catharine P. Cross
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  2. Anne C. Campbell
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Correspondence to Catharine P. Cross .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  2. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Ranald D. Hansen

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Cross, C., Campbell, A. (2014). Violence and Aggression in Women. In: Shackelford, T., Hansen, R. (eds) The Evolution of Violence. Evolutionary Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9314-3_11

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