First, have to agree that the sample size is far too small, and almost certainly composed of entirely Western subjects.
Which may or may not make a difference, but I do get annoyed when such studies are interpreted--by the media, at least, if not really by the scientists themselves--as definitely revealing something about gender differences being "hard wired" and "biological" without, seemingly, any suggestion that cultural norms and social conditioning might have at least something to do with it.
It's not about, say, how a few British subjects reacted to specific stimuli at a specific place and historical period, having been raised in the same cultural environment; it's about ALL MEN AND WOMEN FOR ALL TIME.
This is sloppy thinking.
Maybe, on a darwinian point of view, this is so because women always had to be more "forgiving" of their men, who (I suppose) have been having sex with multiple partners for eons and eons? And men had to be unforgiving because this would disencourage their "wives" from fooling around? Yoy know, that "male are poligamous and female are monogamous" theory. If that's so, it's quite a primitive "alpha male" thingy, and it's hight time we evolve beyond it.
The idea that females are somehow "naturally" monogamous has been discredited for some time now. Birds, chimps, humans...there's much evidence suggesting that female non-monogamy is as much a part of human development as male non-monogamy--from a variety of measures. The assumption that females are more likely to be monogamous seems to have been pretty much a self-serving, heterosexist male fantasy, that has blinded many scientists to evidence that's been right in front of their noses.
Although I'm very loathe to credit this study at all as saying anything definitive about males and females, and am pretty skeptical of all arm-chair Darwinism, because cultural assumptions shape what we see and how we interpret it, it would seem more likely that, if it were to be backed up with broader research, it has to do with child-rearing expectations of women in most human cultures. Empathy is probably the most vital skill for childrearing; it's necessary to remain empathetic even when you disapprove of a child's behavior.
Surely, humans can be conditioned by experience to be more or less empathetic. So, even if the findings could be replicated in broader and more culturally diverse pools, I'd still be loathe to assume that this reveals anything definitive about men and women for all time and in all places, forever and ever... |
