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Sex and Seniors
Persistent Male Quest for Sex Causes Them to Die
Earlier Than Females
From tail of the
peacock to the gaudy
SUV, males compete aggressively for female attention and that costs them
something
May 9, 2006 Why do females live longer than
males? It's the male quest for sex that wears them out, say researchers.
Despite efforts to find modern factors that would explain the different
life expectancies of men and women, the gap is actually ancient and
universal, according to the University of Michigan researchers.
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"Women live longer in almost every country, and the
sex difference in lifespan has been recognized since at least the
mid-18th century," said Daniel J. Kruger, a research scientist in the
U-M School of Public Health and the Institute for Social Research. "It
isn't a recent trend; it originates from our deep evolutionary history."
This skewed mortality isn't even unique to our
species; the men come up short in common chimps and many other species,
Kruger added.
Kruger and co-author Randolph Nesse, a professor of
psychology and psychiatry and director of the Evolution and Human
Adaptation Program, argue that the difference in life expectancy stems
from the biological imperative of attracting mates.
"This whole pattern is a result of sexual selection
and the roles that males and females play in reproduction," Kruger said,
"Females generally invest more in offspring than males and are more
limited in offspring quantity, thus males typically compete with each
other to attract and retain female partners."
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Males Never Quit |
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May 9, 2006 - A study by the University of
Marylands A. James Clark School of Engineering found that
chatroom participants with female usernames received 25 times
more threatening and/or sexually explicit private messages than
those with male or ambiguous usernames.
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report off site... |
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For example, in common chimps, the greatest
difference in mortality rates for males and females occurs at about 13
years of age, when the males are just entering the breeding scene and
competing aggressively for social status and females.
From the tail of the peacock to the
gaudy SUV,
males compete aggressively for female attention, and that costs them
something. In nature, it means riskier physiology and behavior for the
males, such as putting more resources into flashy plumage or engaging in
physical sparring.
And even in modern life, where most dueling is a
form of entertainment, male behavior and physiology is shortening their
lifespans relative to women, Kruger said. In fact, modern lifestyles are
actually exacerbating the gap between male and female life expectancies.
Male physiology, shaped by eons of sexual
competition, is putting the guys at a disadvantage in longevity. Male
immune systems are somewhat weaker, and their bodies are less able to
process the fat they eat, Kruger said.
And behavioral causes---smoking, overeating,
reckless driving, violence---set men apart from most women. "Because
mortality rates in general are going down, behavioral causes of death
are ever more prevalent," Kruger said.
Looking at human mortality rates sliced by
socioeconomic status shows that the gender gap is affected by social
standing. Human males in lower socio-economic levels tend to have higher
mortality rates than their higher-status peers.
The impact of social standing is greater on male
mortality than on female mortality, Kruger noted, partially because
males who have a relatively lower status or lack a mate engage in a
riskier pattern of behaviors in an attempt to get ahead, he said.
About source:
The paper "An evolutionary life-history framework
for understanding sex differences in human mortality rates," appears in
the spring 2006 edition of Human Nature.
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