“The Reality and Evolutionary [Importance] of Human Psychological Sex Differences”, 2019-03-20 (; similar):
The aims of this article are: (1) to provide a quantitative overview of sex differences in human psychological attributes; and (2) to consider evidence for their possible evolutionary origins. Sex differences were identified from a systematic literature search of meta-analyses and large-sample studies. These were organized in terms of evolutionary [importance] as follows:
characteristics arising from inter-male competition (within-sex aggression; impulsiveness and sensation-seeking; fearfulness; visuospatial and object-location memory; object-centred orientations);
those concerning social relations that are likely to have arisen from women’s adaptations for small-group interactions and men’s for larger co-operative groups (person-centred orientation and social skills; language; depression and anxiety);
those arising from female choice (sexuality; mate choice; sexual conflict).
There were sex differences in all categories, whose magnitudes ranged from
small (object location memory; negative emotions), to
medium (mental rotation; anxiety disorders; impulsivity; sex drive; interest in casual sex), to
large (social interests and abilities; sociosexuality); and
very large (escalated aggression; systemizing; sexual violence).
Evolutionary explanations were evaluated according to whether:
similar differences occur in other mammals;
there is cross-cultural consistency;
the origin was early in life or at puberty;
there was evidence for hormonal influences; and
where possible, whether there was evidence for evolutionarily derived design features.
The evidence was positive for most features in most categories, suggesting evolutionary origins for a broad range of sex differences. Attributes for which there was no sex difference are also noted. Within-sex variations are discussed as limitations to the emphasis on sex differences.