Men vs. Women: Who is More Cooperative With Members of Their Own Sex?

Stereotypes of interpersonal relationships have historically portrayed men as beings who "keep to themselves" whereas women have been thought to be open and very communicative. Now, scientists have found out whether it's men or women who are better at cooperating.

The new Harvard study, conducted by researchers at Harvard University, Emmanuel College, and the University of Quebec at Montreal (UQAM), examined the question "Do men or women cooperate better with members of their own sex?" Their experiment incorporated 50 institutions in U.S. and Canada, examining at least two male and female Psychology professors and two male and female assistant professors when conducting coauthored papers.

"Rank Influences Human Sex Difference in Dyadic Cooperation" was published today in the journal Current Biology. Joyce Benenson (Harvard), Richard Wrangham (Emmanuel College), and Henry Markovits (UQAM) coauthored the study and found that the full status professors did not show a difference when conducting a co-authored paper with professors of the same gender. However, male professors were shown to cooperate with same-sex individuals of a differing rank (associate professors) whereas women were less likely to do so.

The researchers solely witnessed a difference in same-sex cooperation when hierarchy is involved. These differences among men and women of the senior faculty when associating with the junior faculty have provided results contrary to popular belief.

"The conventional wisdom is that women cooperate more easily, but when you look at how armies or sports teams function, there is evidence that men are better at cooperating in some ways," said Richard Wrangham, in a news release. "I think it's helpful for this paper to focus on a very clear result, which has to do with the differences in cooperation when rank is involved."

Benenson claims that this research was inspired by her previous studies with children, where she noted that boys were more apt to interact in groups while girls were more involved in one-on-one relationships.

The study aimed to note differences between genders in terms of relationship preferences and organizations in order to note differences beyond the general stereotypes. To read more about the study, visit the full text paper here.