Sex differences in indirect aggression: Psychological evidence from young adults

Many studies have found differences in the types of aggression used by males and females, at least in children and adolescents. Boys tend to use direct physical or verbal aggression, whereas girls tend to use more indirect forms of aggression that prominently feature gossip. Evolutionary theories of sex differences in indirect aggression propose selection pressures that would have acted on older teenagers and adults. Evidence for sex differences in indirect aggression in adults, however, is equivocal. Virtually all studies of adults have found a sex difference in physical aggression, but most have failed to find sex differences in the use of the more indirect forms of aggression. Almost all of these studies have measured indirect aggression using self-reports of aggressive behavior. We investigated sex differences in the psychology of indirect aggression by exposing young adult women and men to the same aggression-evoking stimulus. As evolutionary models predict, we found that women had a stronger desire than men to aggress indirectly, even after controlling for perceptions of social norms and approval. Future work on both evolutionary and social norm models of indirect aggression is warranted.