Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Let Me Take the Risk so You Won’t Have To: An Evolutionary Psychological Analysis of Spontaneous Occurrence of Division of Labor Across 14 Countries

  • RESEARCH ARTICLE
  • Published:
Evolutionary Psychological Science Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The elimination of various forms of discrimination is often considered to be the way to achieve gender equality in terms of pay and the proportion of each sex in occupations. However, considering that men and women physically and psychologically differ in various ways, it is possible that the absence of gender equality is actually the result of voluntary preferences. The concept of Spontaneous Occurrence of Division of Labor (SODOL) is proposed in the current paper to examine how people voluntarily create a division of labor. A sample of 5279 people from 14 countries participated in an online scenario experiment to determine how willing they would be to perform riskier and more physically demanding tasks instead of their partner if they had to work with their partner to complete a variety of tasks. The results showed that men were more likely than women, and participants paired with the same sex partner were less likely than participants paired with the opposite sex partner to undertake tasks that were risky and more physically demanding. In addition, when paired with the opposite sex partner, the division of labor between men and women occurred to an extreme degree. Moreover, these patterns were consistent across 14 countries.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Availability of Data and Material

The data that support the findings of the current study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

References

  • Andrews, T. M., Lukaszewski, A. W., Simmons, Z. L., & Bleske-Rechek, A. (2017). Cue-based estimates of reproductive value explain women’s body attractiveness. Evolution and Human Behavior, 38(4), 461–467.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Archer, J. (2019). The reality and evolutionary significance of human psychological sex differences. Biological Reviews, 94(4), 1381–1415.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bateman, A. J. (1948). Intra-sexual selection in Drosophila. Heredity, 2(3), 349–368.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Barber, N. (1999). Women’s dress fashions as a function of reproductive strategy. Sex Roles, 40(5–6), 459–471.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bartolomei, S., Grillone, G., Di Michele, R., & Cortesi, M. (2021). A comparison between male and female athletes in relative strength and power performances. Journal of Functional Morphology and Kinesiology, 6(1), 17.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Browning, R. C., Baker, E. A., Herron, J. A., & Kram, R. (2006). Effects of obesity and sex on the energetic cost and preferred speed of walking. Journal of Applied Physiology, 100(2), 390–398.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bukstein, D., & Gandelman, N. (2019). Glass ceilings in research: Evidence from a national program in Uruguay. Research Policy, 48(6), 1550–1563.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burnham, T. C., Chapman, J. F., Gray, P. B., McIntyre, M. H., Lipson, S. F., & Ellison, P. T. (2003). Men in committed, romantic relationships have lower testosterone. Hormones and Behavior, 44(2), 119–122.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Buss, D. M. (1989). Sex differences in human mate preferences: Evolutionary hypotheses tested in 37 cultures. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 12(1), 1–14.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cassar, A., Wordofa, F., & Zhang, Y. J. (2016). Competing for the benefit of offspring eliminates the gender gap in competitiveness. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(19), 5201–5205.

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Clark, R. D., & Hatfield, E. (1989). Gender differences in receptivity to sexual offers. Journal of Psychology & Human Sexuality, 2(1), 39–55.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Clutton-Brock, T. H., & Vincent, A. C. (1991). Sexual selection and the potential reproductive rates of males and females. Nature, 351(6321), 58–60.

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cristol, D. A., & Switzer, P. V. (1999). Avian prey-dropping behavior. II. American crows and walnuts. Behavioral Ecology, 10(3), 220–226.

  • Del Giudice, M. (2013). Multivariate misgivings: Is D a valid measure of group and sex differences? Evolutionary Psychology, 11(5), 147470491301100500.

    Google Scholar 

  • Del Giudice, M., Booth, T., & Irwing, P. (2012). The distance between Mars and Venus: Measuring global sex differences in personality. PLoS ONE, 7(1), e29265.

    Article  ADS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Emlen, S. T., & Oring, L. W. (1977). Ecology, sexual selection, and the evolution of mating systems. Science, 197(4300), 215–223.

    Article  ADS  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Farrell, W. (1993). The myth of male power: Why men are the disposable sex, New York. Simon & Schuster.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fox, J., & Weisberg, S. (2020). car: Companion to applied regression. [R package]. Retrieved from https://cran.r-project.org/package=car.

  • Grazier, S., & Sloane, P. J. (2008). Accident risk, gender, family status and occupational choice in the UK. Labour Economics, 15(5), 938–957.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Griskevicius, V., Tybur, J. M., Ackerman, J. M., Delton, A. W., Robertson, T. E., & White, A. E. (2012). The financial consequences of too many men: Sex ratio effects on saving, borrowing, and spending. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102(1), 69.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Griskevicius, V., Tybur, J. M., Delton, A. W., & Robertson, T. E. (2011). The influence of mortality and socioeconomic status on risk and delayed rewards: A life history theory approach. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100(6), 1015.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Guéguen, N. (2011). Effects of solicitor sex and attractiveness on receptivity to sexual offers: A field study. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 40, 915–919.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hall, K. S., Cohen, H. J., Pieper, C. F., Fillenbaum, G. G., Kraus, W. E., Huffman, K. M., & Morey, M. C. (2017). Physical performance across the adult life span: Correlates with age and physical activity. The Journals of Gerontology: Series A, 72(4), 572–578.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henshaw, J. M., Fromhage, L., & Jones, A. G. (2019). Sex roles and the evolution of parental care specialization. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 286(1909), 20191312.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Hughes, S. M., Aung, T., Harrison, M. A., LaFayette, J. N., & Gallup, G. G. (2021). Experimental evidence for sex differences in sexual variety preferences: Support for the Coolidge effect in humans. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 50, 495–509.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hyde, J. S. (2005). The Gender Similarities Hypothesis. American Psychologist, 60(6), 581.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jackson, A. S., Stanforth, P. R., Gagnon, J., Rankinen, T., Leon, A. S., Rao, D. C., & Wilmore, J. H. (2002). The effect of sex, age and race on estimating percentage body fat from body mass index: The Heritage Family Study. International Journal of Obesity, 26(6), 789–796.

  • Janssen, I., Heymsfield, S. B., Wang, Z., & Ross, R. (2000). Skeletal muscle mass and distribution in 468 men and women aged 18–88 yr. Journal of Applied Physiology, 89, 81–88.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, D. D., McDermott, R., Barrett, E. S., Cowden, J., Wrangham, R., McIntyre, M. H., & Peter Rosen, S. (2006). Overconfidence in wargames: Experimental evidence on expectations, aggression, gender and testosterone. Proceedings of the Royal Society b: Biological Sciences, 273(1600), 2513–2520.

    Article  CAS  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Lenth, R. (2020). emmeans: Estimated marginal means, aka least-squares means. [R package]. Retrieved from https://cran.r-project.org/package=emmeans.

  • Li, N. P., Bailey, J. M., Kenrick, D. T., & Linsenmeier, J. A. (2002). The necessities and luxuries of mate preferences: Testing the tradeoffs. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 82(6), 947.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Litman, L., Robinson, J., Rosen, Z., Rosenzweig, C., Waxman, J., & Bates, L. M. (2020). The persistence of pay inequality: The gender pay gap in an anonymous online labor market. PLoS ONE, 15(2), e0229383.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Low, B. S., Hazel, A., Parker, N., & Welch, K. B. (2008). Influences on women’s reproductive lives: Unexpected ecological underpinnings. Cross-Cultural Research, 42(3), 201–219.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mata, R., Josef, A. K., & Hertwig, R. (2016). Propensity for risk taking across the life span and around the globe. Psychological Science, 27(2), 231–243.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Marlowe, F. W. (2003). A critical period for provisioning by Hadza men: Implications for pair bonding. Evolution and Human Behavior, 24(3), 217–229.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McMurray, R. G., Soares, J., Caspersen, C. J., & McCurdy, T. (2014). Examining variations of resting metabolic rate of adults: A public health perspective. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 46(7), 1352.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Mose, J. N. (2021). Representation of women in top executive positions in general medical-surgical hospitals in the United States. Women’s Health Reports, 2(1), 124–132.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Murdock, G. P., & Provost, C. (1973). Factors in the division of labor by sex: A cross-cultural analysis. Ethnology, 12(2), 203–225.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neuhoff, J. G., Long, K. L., & Worthington, R. C. (2012). Strength and physical fitness predict the perception of looming sounds. Evolution and Human Behavior, 33(4), 318–322.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Neuhoff, J. G., Planisek, R., & Seifritz, E. (2009). Adaptive sex differences in auditory motion perception: Looming sounds are special. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 35(1), 225.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pacheco-Cobos, L., Rosetti, M., Cuatianquiz, C., & Hudson, R. (2010). Sex differences in mushroom gathering: Men expend more energy to obtain equivalent benefits. Evolution and Human Behavior, 31(4), 289–297.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pawlowski, B., Atwal, R., & Dunbar, R. I. (2008). Sex differences in everyday risk-taking behavior in humans. Evolutionary Psychology, 6(1), 147470490800600100.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Perilloux, C., Easton, J. A., & Buss, D. M. (2012). The misperception of sexual interest. Psychological Science, 23(2), 146–151.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Petersen, J. L., & Hyde, J. S. (2010). A meta-analytic review of research on gender differences in sexuality, 1993–2007. Psychological Bulletin, 136(1), 21.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Pollet, T. V., & Saxton, T. K. (2019). How diverse are the samples used in the journals ‘Evolution & Human Behavior’and ‘Evolutionary Psychology’? Evolutionary Psychological Science, 5, 357–368.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Puts, D. A. (2010). Beauty and the beast: Mechanisms of sexual selection in humans. Evolution and Human Behavior, 31(3), 157–175.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ralston, H. J. (1958). Energy-speed relation and optimal speed during level walking. Internationale Zeitschrift Für Angewandte Physiologie Einschliesslich Arbeitsphysiologie, 17(4), 277–283.

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • R Core Team (2021). R: A Language and environment for statistical computing. (Version 4.1) [Computer software]. Retrieved from https://cran.r-project.org. (R packages retrieved from MRAN snapshot 2022–01–01).

  • Ronay, R., & Hippel, W. V. (2010). The presence of an attractive woman elevates testosterone and physical risk taking in young men. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1(1), 57–64.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Schmitt, D. P. (2003). Universal sex differences in the desire for sexual variety: Tests from 52 nations, 6 continents, and 13 islands. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(1), 85.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sell, A., Hone, L. S., & Pound, N. (2012). The importance of physical strength to human males. Human Nature, 23, 30–44.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Stoet, G., & Geary, D. C. (2018). The gender-equality paradox in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education. Psychological Science, 29(4), 581–593.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sutter, M., & Glätzle-Rützler, D. (2015). Gender differences in the willingness to compete emerge early in life and persist. Management Science, 61(10), 2339–2354.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tay, P. K. C., Ting, Y. Y., & Tan, K. Y. (2019). Sex and care: The evolutionary psychological explanations for sex differences in formal care occupations. Frontiers in Psychology, 10, 867.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • The jamovi project (2022). jamovi. (Version 2.3) [Computer Software]. Retrieved from https://www.jamovi.org.

  • Trivers, R. L. (1972). Parental investment and sexual selection. In B. Campbell (Ed.), Sexual selection and the descent of man (pp. 136–179). Aldine.

    Google Scholar 

  • Viechtbauer, W. (2010). Conducting meta-analyses in R with the metafor package. Journal of Statistical Software. Link, 36, 1–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vugt, M. V., Cremer, D. D., & Janssen, D. P. (2007). Gender differences in cooperation and competition: The male-warrior hypothesis. Psychological Science, 18(1), 19–23.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Walter, K. V., Conroy-Beam, D., Buss, D. M., Asao, K., Sorokowska, A., Sorokowski, P., ... & Zupančič, M. (2020). Sex differences in mate preferences across 45 countries: A large-scale replication. Psychological Science, 31(4), 408–423.

  • World Economic Forum (2022). Global Gender Gap Report 2022. Available at: https://www.weforum.org/reports (accessed February 18, 2023).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Toyo University, 5-28-20 Hakusan, Bunkyo-Ku, Tokyo, 112-8606, Japan

    Ryushin Iha

Authors
  1. Ryushin Iha
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

The corresponding author contributed to all aspects of the current study.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ryushin Iha.

Ethics declarations

Ethics Approval

The current study was approved by the Ethical Committee of Toyo University.

Consent to Participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the current study.

Consent for Publication

The author affirms that participants provided informed consent for publication of their data for scientific research.

Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Iha, R. Let Me Take the Risk so You Won’t Have To: An Evolutionary Psychological Analysis of Spontaneous Occurrence of Division of Labor Across 14 Countries. Evolutionary Psychological Science 10, 1–9 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40806-023-00381-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40806-023-00381-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation