Sex, Fear, and Greed: A Social Dilemma Analysis of Gender and Cooperation

Results from previous studies have led many researchers to conclude that sex has no effect on cooperation in social dilemmas. This article reconciles strong theoretical expectations of sex differences in cooperation with the dearth of empirical evidence for such differences. I show that several theories of sex- or gender-related behavior suggest we should expect males and females to respond more strongly to greed and fear, respectively, in...