Social and Environmental Conditions Intensifying Male Competition for Resources, Status, and Mates Lead to Increased Male Mortality

Abstract

Sex differences in human mortality rates emerge from a complex interaction of genetic heritage and developmental environment, incorporating genetic, physiological, psychological, social, and environmental factors whose influences and interconnections are best understood in an integrative evolutionary life history framework. Across mammals, males allocate greater investment to reproductive effort at the expense of investment in somatic effort and more investment in mating effort at the expense of investment in parenting effort compared to female life history. Thus, the generally higher male mortality rates result from the trade-off between reproductive competitiveness and longevity. Men on average have riskier behavioral patterns and greater physiological susceptibility than women, dying at higher rates from behavioral and most nonbehavioral causes across the life span. The magnitude of the sex difference in mortality in developed nations peaks when males sexually mature and enter into mating competition. Sex differences in investment towards parenting and mating competition are ultimately responsible for sex differences in mortality rates, and the intensity of male mating competition predicts the extent to which male mortality rates exceed those for females. In humans, male competition for mates includes competition for resources and social status utilized to attract and retain mates. Social and environmental conditions intensifying such male competition lead to increased male mortality.KeywordsParental InvestmentSocial DominanceMating EffortMale CompetitionMale Reproductive SuccessThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.