Male Winners Research Articles

Sex differences in the impact of social status on social reward and associated mesolimbic activation

Social stress plays an important role in the etiology of many neuropsychiatric disorders and can lead to a variety of behavioral deficits such as social withdrawal. One way that social stress may contribute to psychiatric disorders is by reducing social motivation and the rewarding properties of social interactions. We investigated the impact of social stress on social reward in the context of winning versus losing agonistic encounters in Syrian hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus). First, we tested the hypothesis that social stress resulting from either stable low, or subordinate, social status or from social defeat reduces the rewarding properties of social interactions. Using an Operant Social Preference (OSP) task to measure social reward/motivation, we found that both subordinate and socially defeated males made significantly fewer entries into chambers containing novel, same-sex conspecifics compared to males who were dominant (i.e., stably won the agonistic encounters). In females, however, there were no differences in social entries between winners and losers. In a second experiment, we found more activation of the mesolimbic dopamine system (MDS) as assessed with cFos immunohistochemistry in the lateral ventral tegmental area (lVTA) and the nucleus accumbens (NAc) shell of male winners compared to losers. In females, however, there were no differences in activation in the lVTA between winners and losers. Surprisingly, however, winning females displayed significantly more activation in the NAc shell as compared to losing females, despite the lack of behavioral differences. Thus, behavioral and histological data suggest that there are sex differences in the impact of social status on social reward and associated mesolimbic activation.

Gender differences in re-contesting decisions: New evidence from French municipal elections

This paper studies differences across genders in the re-contesting decisions of politicians following electoral wins or defeats. Using close races in mixed-gender French local elections, we show that women are less likely to persist in competition when they lose compared to male runners-up, but are equally or more prone than male winners to re-contest when they win. Differences in observable characteristics or in the expected electoral returns of running again cannot fully account for these gender gaps in persistence. In contrast, evidence suggests that results are driven by behavioural explanations such as cross-gender differences in candidates’ attitudes toward competition, or by political parties behaving differently toward female and male candidates for a given electoral outcome. Additionally, we provide evidence that a woman’s victory encourages former female challengers to re-contest but does not trigger the entry of new female candidates.

Sex Differences in Aggression Are Paralleled by Differential Activation of the Brain Social Decision-Making Network in Zebrafish

Although aggression is more prevalent in males, females also express aggressive behaviors and in specific ecological contexts females can be more aggressive than males. The aim of this work is to assess sex differences in aggression and to characterize the patterns of neuronal activation of the social-decision making network (SDMN) in response to intra-sexual aggression in both male and female zebrafish. Adult fish were exposed to social interaction with a same-sex opponent and all behavioral displays, latency, and time of resolution were quantified. After conflict resolution, brains were sampled and sex differences on functional connectivity throughout the SDMN were assessed by immunofluorescence of the neuronal activation marker pS6. Results suggest that both sexes share a similar level of motivation for aggression, but female encounters show shorter conflict resolution and a preferential use of antiparallel displays instead of overt aggression, showing a reduction of putative maladaptive effects. Although there are no sex differences in the neuronal activation in any individual brain area from the SDMN, agonistic interactions increased neuronal activity in most brain areas in both sexes. Functional connectivity was assessed using bootstrapped adjacency matrices that capture the co-activation of the SDMN nodes. Male winners increased the overall excitation and showed no changes in inhibition across the SDMN, whereas female winners and both male and female losers showed a decrease in both excitation and inhibition of the SDMN in comparison to non-interacting control fish. Moreover, network centrality analysis revealed both shared hubs, as well as sex-specific hubs, between the sexes for each social condition in the SDMN. In summary, a distinct neural activation pattern associated with social experience during fights was found for each sex, suggesting a sex-specific differential activation of the social brain as a consequence of social experience. Overall, our study adds insights into sex differences in agonistic behavior and on the neuronal architecture of intrasexual aggression in zebrafish.

Does recent experience affect large male advantage in a sequentially-mating fish?

Abstract In many mating systems, large male body size is associated with dominance in direct contests with rivals and females may exhibit preference for larger males. As such, body size is often positively associated with mating success. However, mating experience can influence the potential advantage of large body size through alterations in behaviour and depletion of sperm reserves. In Japanese medaka (Oryzias latipes), males mate with many females each day, and larger males mate more frequently than smaller males. In an observational experiment, we tested the following alternate predictions: (1) recent mating experience may enhance mating success through a carry-over effect of prior mating, whereby small experienced males gain an advantage over large inexperienced rivals in mating contests; or (2) recent mating experience decreases mating success through a reduction in fertilization due to sperm limitation, effectively dampening the large-male advantage against a small inexperienced rival. We examined the interactive effect of size and recent experience on mating behaviour and success. While mating contests were monopolized by large males, recent experience enhanced mating success, especially in small male winners. Experienced males courted more readily than those without recent experience, suggesting that recent prior mating enhances this behaviour. Furthermore, males who had copulated recently did not exhibit sperm depletion when in the presence of a competitor, nor did female behaviour indicate a preference for inexperienced males. This suggests that males can use sexual experience to increase their reproductive success in future mating situations, which may influence the action of sexual selection and alternative tactics in shaping mating systems.

Participation and Performance Trends in the Oldest 100-km Ultramarathon in the World.

Participation and performance trends in ultramarathon running have been investigated for large datasets and long period of times with an increase in participants and an improvement in performance. However, the analysis of ultramarathons across many decades is missing. We analyzed these trends for 96,036 athletes (88,286 men and 7750 women) from 67 countries competing between 1956 and 2019 in ‘100 km Lauf Biel’ in Switzerland, the oldest 100-km ultramarathon in the world. More men than women participated in all years. The number of male participants reached a peak at around 1985 and a decline in participation occurred thereafter. Women started competing in 1962. Men were always faster than women and both women and men reduced their race times over years. After about 1985, both overall women and men and both female and male winners were not able to improve race times. For men, athletes from all age groups below the age of 49 years old reached a peak of participation in the 1980s, and showed a decrease since then. Regarding age groups, the decrease first started in age group 20–29 years, followed by 30–39, 40–49, 50–59, and 60–69 years. For athletes in age groups 70–79 and 80–89 years, no decrease occurred. For women, age group athletes in age groups 40–49, 50–59, and 60–69 years increased their participation, whereas age groups 20–29 and 30–39 peaked in the late 1980s and started to decrease or stabilize, respectively. Switzerland, Germany, and France were the countries with the highest numbers of participants throughout the history of the race. In men, race times increased after about 1990 for most nationalities; only runners from Germany seemed to stabilize their performance. In women, runners from Italy, France, and Austria improved their performance over the years. In summary, the analysis of the oldest 100-km ultramarathon in the world showed a decrease in participation and an impairment in performance in the last 60 years. These changes were due to a decrease in the number of male ultramarathoners in around the 1980s, where mainly the number of age group runners younger than 70 years decreased.

Artificial selection for male winners in the Siamese fighting fish Betta splendens correlates with high female aggression

In Southeast Asia, males of the Siamese fighting fish Betta splendens have been selected across centuries for paired-staged fights. During the selection process, matched for size males fight in a small tank until the contest is resolved. Breeders discard losing batches and reproduce winner batches with the aim of increasing fight performance. We assessed the results of this long-term selection process by comparing under standard laboratory conditions male and female aggressive behaviour of one strain selected for staged fights (“fighters”) and one strain of wild-types. The aggressive response of adult fish was tested against their mirror image or a size-matched conspecific. Fighter males were more aggressive than wild-type males for all measured behaviours. Differences were not only quantitative but the pattern of fight display was also divergent. Fighter males had an overall higher swimming activity, performing frequent fast strikes in the direction of the intruder and displaying from a distance. Wild-type males were less active and exhibited aggressive displays mostly in close proximity to the stimuli. Females of the fighter strain, which are not used for fights, were also more aggressive than wild-type females. Aggressive behaviours were correlated across male and female fighter siblings, suggesting common genetic and physiological mechanisms to male and female aggression in this species. The study further shows that results were largely independent of the stimulus type, with the mirror test inducing similar and less variable responses than the live conspecific presentation. These results suggest that selection for male winners co-selected for high-frequency and metabolic demanding aggressive display in males and also enhanced female aggression, opening a wide range of testable hypothesis about the ultimate and proximate mechanisms of male and female aggression in B. splendens.

Fight outcome briefly affects the reproductive fitness of male crickets

Sexual selection allows male individuals to adopt different evolutionary strategies in mating system. In this study, we determined whether dominance affected reproductive fitness of male crickets Velarifictorus aspersus during both pre-copulatory and post-copulatory selection when we excluded male–male competition. The results showed that females mated more often with male winners only during the first 2 h after a fight when male winners were more likely to produce courtship songs than losers. However, females did not retain the attached spermatophores of male winners longer than those of male losers, and the fecundity and fertilization success also did not differ significantly between females mated different times with male winners and losers. Instead, the fertilization success was positively correlated with male body weight. These results suggest that a recent wining experience increases reproductive fitness of males during pre-copulatory selection, but females may prefer larger males rather than winners during post-copulatory selection. The incoordination between pre- and post-copulatory selection may allow males to adopt different evolutionary strategies in mating system.

Can estrogens be considered as key elements of the challenge hypothesis? The case of intrasexual aggression in a cichlid fish.

Territorial aggression has been widely studied in males and it has been historically suggested that androgens are key mediators of this behavior. However, more recent evidence suggests that it is the aromatization to estrogens, rather than androgens themselves, that is key to regulating this behavior. Females also display aggressive behaviors, but the physiological regulation of female aggression is still understudied when compared to males. In this context, the challenge hypothesis postulates that male-male aggressive interactions stimulate the production of androgens in males in periods of social instability. Here we determine plasma sex steroid levels in Cichlasoma dimerus to assess whether estrogens are related to aggressive behavior and to test the challenge hypothesis in both males and females. We set-up challenge trials as intrasexual dyadic encounters and determined androgen and estrogen levels before and after the trial in both winners and losers. Even though there were no differences in initial estradiol-17β plasma levels between male winners and losers, initial levels were higher (p = .046) in female winners than in losers, while there were no differences in testosterone or 11-ketotestosterone levels. After trials, both males and females showed elevated levels of estradiol-17β and both androgens, but only males exhibited a significant 1.45, 5.42 and 3.2-fold increase in estradiol-17β, testosterone and 11-ketotestosterone, respectively (p = .023, p = .016, p = .018). Moreover, changes in circulating levels of estradiol-17β in females after the trials do not depend on their reproductive status or on the outcome of the contest. We suggest that female aggression is associated with initial levels of estradiol-17β, and that the challenge hypothesis, originally defined for androgens, could also be extended to estrogens.

The curtailed careers of women in China

![Figure][1] PHOTO: DEEPBLUE4YOU/[ISTOCKPHOTO.COM][2] In the Working Life “Reflections of a woman pioneer” (V. Venkatraman, 7 November 2014, p. [782][3]), Mildred “Millie” Dresselhaus points out that women's careers often pick up steam after their childbearing years. She names a couple of examples of women who don't want to retire and work well into their 80s and beyond. Yet in China, the statutory retirement age of Chinese female researchers is age 55, a full 5 years lower than that of Chinese male researchers. The average childbearing age for Chinese female researchers is 30 ([ 1 ][4]). It is usually women who take care of their young children before they begin kindergarten (at about 3 years old), which prevents the female researchers from spending as much time applying for grants and publishing as male researchers. By the time they are 36 years old, Chinese male researchers have begun to attain better academic titles, publish more papers, and receive more funding ([ 1 ][4]). To address this, China has introduced a number of policies to help female researchers deal with childbearing and raising children. For example, the National Natural Science Foundation of China stipulates that male and female researchers can apply for Young Scientist Funds before 35 and 40 years old, respectively ([ 2 ][5]). The China Association for Science and Technology stipulates that the upper age limit for female winners of the Youth Science and Technology Prize is 5 years higher than that for male winners ([ 3 ][6]). These policies have considered that female researchers can't work on the frontlines because of childbearing and raising children. The policies are effective ([ 1 ][4], [ 4 ][7], [ 5 ][8]); after 40 years old, the gap between male and female researchers begins to narrow. After 46 years old, the percentage of senior titles is even higher among women. But after 50 years old, once again, male researchers begin to open the gap. This is mainly because female researchers have to reduce the number of research projects before the statutory retirement age. To narrow the gap between male and female researchers, we should extend the retirement age for female researchers in Chinese universities. 1. [↵][9] Chinese Academy of Sciences ([www.cas.cn/xw/zjsd/201305/t20130513_3837506.shtml][10]) [in Chinese]. 2. [↵][11] National Natural Science Foundation of China ([www.nsfc.gov.cn/nsfc/cen/xmzn/2015xmzn/08/index.html][12]) [in Chinese]. 3. [↵][13] China Association for Science and Technology ( )[in Chinese]. 4. [↵][14] 1. Y. Ma , Forum Sci. Technol. China 11, 126 (2011). [OpenUrl][15] 5. [↵][16] 1. Y. Li , Bull. Natl. Natural Sci. Foundation China 5, 274 (2013). [OpenUrl][17] [1]: pending:yes [2]: http://ISTOCKPHOTO.COM [3]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.346.6210.782 [4]: #ref-1 [5]: #ref-2 [6]: #ref-3 [7]: #ref-4 [8]: #ref-5 [9]: #xref-ref-1-1 View reference 1 in text [10]: http://www.cas.cn/xw/zjsd/201305/t20130513_3837506.shtml [11]: #xref-ref-2-1 View reference 2 in text [12]: http://www.nsfc.gov.cn/nsfc/cen/xmzn/2015xmzn/08/index.html [13]: #xref-ref-3-1 View reference 3 in text [14]: #xref-ref-4-1 View reference 4 in text [15]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DForum%2BSci.%2BTechnol.%2BChina%26rft.volume%253D11%26rft.spage%253D126%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [16]: #xref-ref-5-1 View reference 5 in text [17]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DBull.%2BNatl.%2BNatural%2BSci.%2BFoundation%2BChina%26rft.volume%253D5%26rft.spage%253D274%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx

Rockin' robins: Do congresswomen rule the roost in the Twittersphere?

Recent work by Evans, Cordova, and Sipole (2014) reveals that in the two months leading up to the 2012 election, female House candidates used the social media site Twitter more often than male candidates. Not only did female candidates tweet more often, but they also spent more time attacking their opponents and discussing important issues in American politics. In this article, we examine whether the female winners of those races acted differently than the male winners in the 2012 election, and whether they differed in their tweeting‐style during two months in the summer of 2013. Using a hand‐coded content analysis of every tweet from each member in the U.S. House of Representatives in June and July of 2013, we show that women differ from their male colleagues in their frequency and type of tweeting, and note some key differences between the period during the election and the period after. This article suggests that context greatly affects representatives' Twitter‐style.

Sex and age-related differences in performance in a 24-hour ultra-cycling draft-legal event - a cross-sectional data analysis.

BackgroundThe purpose of this study was to examine the sex and age-related differences in performance in a draft-legal ultra-cycling event.MethodsAge-related changes in performance across years were investigated in the 24-hour draft-legal cycling event held in Schötz, Switzerland, between 2000 and 2011 using multi-level regression analyses including age, repeated participation and environmental temperatures as co-variables.ResultsFor all finishers, the age of peak cycling performance decreased significantly (β = −0.273, p = 0.036) from 38 ± 10 to 35 ± 6 years in females but remained unchanged (β = −0.035, p = 0.906) at 41.0 ± 10.3 years in males. For the annual fastest females and males, the age of peak cycling performance remained unchanged at 37.3 ± 8.5 and 38.3 ± 5.4 years, respectively. For all female and male finishers, males improved significantly (β = 7.010, p = 0.006) the cycling distance from 497.8 ± 219.6 km to 546.7 ± 205.0 km whereas females (β = −0.085, p = 0.987) showed an unchanged performance of 593.7 ± 132.3 km. The mean cycling distance achieved by the male winners of 960.5 ± 51.9 km was significantly (p < 0.001) greater than the distance covered by the female winners with 769.7 ± 65.7 km but was not different between the sexes (p > 0.05). The sex difference in performance for the annual winners of 19.7 ± 7.8% remained unchanged across years (p > 0.05). The achieved cycling distance decreased in a curvilinear manner with advancing age. There was a significant age effect (F = 28.4, p < 0.0001) for cycling performance where the fastest cyclists were in age group 35–39 years.ConclusionIn this 24-h cycling draft-legal event, performance in females remained unchanged while their age of peak cycling performance decreased and performance in males improved while their age of peak cycling performance remained unchanged. The annual fastest females and males were 37.3 ± 8.5 and 38.3 ± 5.4 years old, respectively. The sex difference for the fastest finishers was ~20%. It seems that women were not able to profit from drafting to improve their ultra-cycling performance.

Differences in Age and Performance in 12-Hour and 24-Hour Ultra-Runners

The aim of this study was to analyse participation and performance trends across years of 12-hour and 24-hour ultra-runners. Age and running speed of all female and male finishers in the 12-hour and 24-hour run of Basel (Switzerland) were analysed between 1988 and 2012 using regression analysis and analysis of variance. Participation in the 24-hour run was higher with 1,904 total finishes (78.5%) compared to 523 total finishes (21.5%) in the 12-hour run. The number of finishes increased in the 12-hour run for both women (r^2 = 0.43; P ＜ 0.01) and men (r^2 = 0.19; P ＜ 0.05) while the number of finishes in the 24-hour run remained stable (P ＞ 0.05). Running speed of the annual top three runners in the 12-hour run remained unchanged over time at 10.6 ± 0.8 km/h for men and 8.0 ± 0.5 km/h for women. In the 24-hour, running speed of the annual top three men tended to decrease (r^2 = 0.23; P = 0.02) from 10.5 km/h to 9.7 km/h, while it remained stable for the top three women at 7.7 ± 0.9 km/h. The sex difference in performance for the top three runners was 23.5 ± 7% in the 12-hour run and 20.2 ± 8.8% in the 24-hour run. The annual female winners were significantly younger (39.2 ± 7.9 years) than the annual male winners (44 ± 7.4 years) in the 12-hour run while there was no difference in age between annual male winners (44.7 ± 11.2 years) and annual female winners (43.7 ± 10.2 years) in the 24-hour run. To summarize, running speed for the annual fastest women and men remained stable across years for both races except for men in the 24-h run where running speed decreased over time. The sex difference in performance remained unchanged at ~20-23% for both 12-hour and 24-hour across years which appeared greater compared to existing reports on ultra-endurance events. The mean age of the fastest runners was between 38-45 years which corresponds to master runners. Future studies need to investigate what motivates more ultra-marathoners to compete in a 24-hour run than in a 12-hour run.

Participation and performance trends in 'Ultraman Hawaii' from 1983 to 2012.

BackgroundParticipation and performance trends have been investigated in a single stage Ironman triathlon such as the ‘Ironman Hawaii,’ but not for a multi-stage ultra-triathlon such as the ‘Ultraman Hawaii’ covering a total distance of 515 km. The aims of this study were to analyze (1) changes in participation and performance, (2) sex-related differences in overall and split time performances, and (3) the age of peak performance in Ultraman Hawaii.MethodsAge and race times including split times for 98 women and 570 men who successfully finished Ultraman Hawaii (day 1 with 10-km swimming and 145-km cycling, day 2 with 276-km cycling, and day 3 with 84-km running) between 1983 and 2012 were analyzed. Changes in variables over time of annual winners and annual top three women and men were investigated using simple linear regression analyses.ResultsThe number of female finishers increased (r2 = 0.26, p < 0.01), while the number of male finishers remained stable (r2 = 0.03, p > 0.05). Overall race times decreased for both female (r2 = 0.28, p < 0.01) and male (r2 = 0.14, p < 0.05) winners and for both the annual top three women (r2 = 0.36, p < 0.01) and men (r2 = 0.14, p = 0.02). The sex difference in performance decreased over time from 24.3% to 11.5% (r2 = 0.39, p < 0.01). For the split disciplines, the time performance in cycling on day 1 (r2 = 0.20, p < 0.01) and day 2 decreased significantly for men (r2 = 0.41, p < 0.01) but for women only on day 2 (r2 = 0.45, p < 0.01). Split times showed no changes in swimming and running. The age of the annual winners increased from 28 to 47 years for men (r2 = 0.35, p < 0.01) while it remained stable at 32 ± 6 years for women (r2 < 0.01, p > 0.05). The age of the annual top three finishers increased from 33 ± 6 years to 48 ± 3 years for men (p < 0.01) and from 29 ± 7 years to 49 ± 2 years for women (p < 0.01).ConclusionsBoth the annual top three women and men improved performance in Ultraman Hawaii during the 1983–2012 period although the age of the annual top three women and men increased. The sex-related difference in performance decreased over time to reach approximately 12% similar to the reports of other endurance and ultra-endurance events. Further investigations are required to better understand the limiting factors of the multi-activities ultra-endurance events taking place over several days.

Androgens and dominance: Sex-specific patterns in a highly social fish ( Neolamprologus pulcher)

In most vertebrates, aggression and dominance are tightly linked to circulating testosterone. Fish, however, have two androgens (testosterone, T and 11-ketotestosterone, 11KT) that influence aggression and dominance. To date, few studies have compared the relationship between androgen levels and the outcome of aggressive contests in both females and males of the same species. To investigate sex differences in androgens we staged size-matched, limited-resource (territory) contests with 14 female–female and 10 male–male pairs of the highly social cichlid Neolamprologus pulcher. We then examined androgen levels in recently established dominants, who won the contest and subsequently acquired a territory (for 3 h), and subordinates, who lost and did not acquire a territory. Newly dominant females had higher plasma T but similar 11KT levels to newly subordinate females. In contrast, newly dominant males had higher 11KT but similar T levels to subordinate males. The ratio of 11KT to T, which demonstrates physiological importance of T conversion to 11KT, was positively correlated with submissive behavior in female winners, and correlated weakly with aggressive behavior in male winners ( p = 0.05). These findings provide support for the hypothesis that different androgens play equivalent roles in female versus male dominance establishment, and suggest that relative levels of 11KT and T are implicated in female dominance behavior and perhaps behavior of both sexes.

Sex and Experience in the Academy Award Nomination Process

Research has indicated significant age differences between male and female Academy Award nominees and winners. However, this discrepancy may be associated with sex differences in actors' ages when they first begin their acting careers. The present research uses event history analysis to investigate the duration of Academy Award nominees' careers from career start (first film) to first three Academy Award nominations. Analysis suggested controlling for an actor's age at first film explains the sex-age disparity between Academy Award nominees and winners.

Recognition of competitors by male golden hamsters

Golden hamsters, like many animals, form dominant/subordinate relationships after aggressive encounters. We examined whether behavioral responses by males that won or lost fights would differ toward familiar and unfamiliar male stimulus animals. In Experiment 1, male winners or losers of fights explored an arena containing a confined stimulus animal that was either familiar or novel and had either won or lost a fight. Compared to dominant males, losers spent less time in proximity to stimulus males and investigated them less. Losers also displayed higher levels of stretch-attend postures (indicative of risk assessment) than winners, and they showed more escape and locomotion in response to familiar winners than to unfamiliar winners, indicating recognition of the male that they had lost to. In Experiment 2, losers scent marked less to the odors of a familiar winner than to those of an unfamiliar winner. Thus, male hamsters appear to use familiarity with a former opponent's odors to adaptively regulate their responses to variations in social threat.

Effects of opiate ligands on intraspecific aggression in crickets

In the cricket Gryllus bimaculatus, the opiate antagonist naloxone, 30 μg in 50 μl into hemolymph per animal, caused a release of intraspecific aggression in male-losers and in females. Naloxone had no significant effect on the aggression of winners and isolated males. The agonist of μ-opiate receptors DAGO, 45 μg, suppressed aggression in male winners and decreased the percentage and duration of contact fights between previously isolated males. The results suggest that, during social contacts, the activity of the endogenous opioid system may contribute to suppressing aggression in subordinate males, as well as in females.

Sex difference in testosterone response to a video game contest

Testosterone (T) and cortisol (C) were assayed from saliva samples given by young men ( n = 28) and women ( n = 32) before, during, and after competing with a same-sex partner in a video game. The T response to the competition is different in each sex; the C response is the same. Male results confirm prior reports of a precontest rise in testosterone. Male results did not confirm previous findings that, after a contest, the testosterone of winners is higher than that of losers, perhaps because the video game contest produced little mood difference between male winners and losers. Unlike male testosterone, female testosterone generally decreased throughout the experiment. Trends in T and C are parallel in women but not in men. Apparently T works differently in competition between men than between women.

Behavioral consequences of agonistic experiences in the male S3 (Tryon Maze Dull) rat

Aggression occurring during an initial confrontation between two rats may result in significant behavioral changes in one or both animals. The present experiment was designed to study behavioral changes occurring in the course of an agonistic interaction and the consequences of winning or losing. In order to ensure winning, male CPB-S3 Tryon Maze Dull) rats were confronted with males of a more aggressive strain (Long Evans); and to ensure losing they were confronted with those of a less aggressive strain Wistar). Winners were tested against losers, this test being repeated after an interval of 17 days. Winners and losers were also tested with naive S3 opponents. Possible effects of winning and losing in nonagonistic behavioral tests were then examined. These measured open field activity, passive avoidance learning, and masculine sexual behavior. The results replicate and extend earlier findings using a different strain, indicating that significant and relatively permanent behavioral changes are induced in male winners and losers. Behavioral change is most prominent in the losers. Despite the behavioral differences between winners and losers in tests for agonistic behavior, no consistent differences were noted in any of the other behavioral tests.

Sex differences in causal attributions for success and failure in real and hypothetical sport settings

In Experiment 1, a 48-item attribution questionnaire was administered to 22 members of the men's and women's varsity basketball teams, respectively, after an intrasquad scrimmage. In Experiment 2, the same questionnaire was administered to a random sample of 54 undergraduates who were told to imagine a hypothetical scrimmage. Losing male athletes rated internal characteristics as less important in determining the outcome than did losing females. Winning females rated the opponent's characteristics as less important in determining the outcome than did winning males. Hypothetical female winners rated the opponent's characteristics as more important than did hypothetical male winners. The lack of correspondence in the outcomes of the two experiments and possible methodological shortcomings in the attribution literature are discussed.