On the evolution of male competitivenessIAST Working Papers from Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST) Abstract: Since a man’s reproductive success depends on his ability to outcompete other men, male competitiveness may be expected to have been exposed to strong selective pressure throughout human history. Accordingly, the relatively low level of physical violence observed between men has been viewed as a puzzle. What could have limited the eagerness of men to out-compete each other? I study the evolution of male competitiveness in a model where men compete for both reproductive and productive resources. I show that high levels of male competitiveness are then consistent with evolution by natural selection if (a) the ecology is generous enough for men to supply little or no food to their children, (b) competing is not too costly in terms of productive resources, and (c) relatedness among males is low enough. Keywords: male-male competition; competitiveness; evolution; monogamy; polygyny; parental care (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tse:iastwp:125231 Access Statistics for this paper More papers in IAST Working Papers from Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse (IAST) Contact information at EDIRC. |
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