Commitments and Grudges

Abstract

One of the gender differences reported here, women's commitment to particular political figures and men's sensitivity to competitive situations, has my particular interest inasmuch as it appears to match behavioral sex differences in chimpanzees. While the author is aware of this similarity, I intend to explore it further, in the meantime correcting point by point a misleading dichotomy underlying much of the author's discussion. Females are said to emphasize social bonding and positive emotions, seeking political solutions based on informal agreement, whereas males are considered to be more confrontational and dominance-oriented. Yet, aggressive and cohesive tendencies are not as antithetical as they appear, and less sex-linked than suggested. In fact, one could argue that human males owe their success in the political arena to their ability to combine both tendencies.