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Gender differences in cooperation: experimental evidence on high school students.

ABSTRACT: The emergence of cooperation among unrelated human subjects is a long-standing conundrum that has been amply studied both theoretically and experimentally. Within the question, a less explored issue relates to the gender dependence of cooperation, which can be traced back to Darwin, who stated that "women are less selfish but men are more competitive". Indeed, gender has been shown to be relevant in several game theoretical paradigms of social cooperativeness, including prisoner's dilemma, snowdrift and ultimatum/dictator games, but there is no consensus as to which gender is more cooperative. We here contribute to this literature by analyzing the role of gender in a repeated Prisoners' Dilemma played by Spanish high-school students in both a square lattice and a heterogeneous network. While the experiment was conducted to shed light on the influence of networks on the emergence of cooperation, we benefit from the availability of a large dataset of more 1200 participants. We applied different standard econometric techniques to this dataset, including Ordinary Least Squares and Linear Probability models including random effects. All our analyses indicate that being male is negatively associated with the level of cooperation, this association being statistically significant at standard levels. We also obtain a gender difference in the level of cooperation when we control for the unobserved heterogeneity of individuals, which indicates that the gender gap in cooperation favoring female students is present after netting out this effect from other socio-demographics factors not controlled for in the experiment, and from gender differences in risk, social and competitive preferences.

SUBMITTER: Molina JA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3867463 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Gender differences in cooperation: experimental evidence on high school students.

Molina J Alberto JA Giménez-Nadal J Ignacio JI Cuesta José A JA Gracia-Lazaro Carlos C Moreno Yamir Y Sanchez Angel A

PloS one 20131218 12

The emergence of cooperation among unrelated human subjects is a long-standing conundrum that has been amply studied both theoretically and experimentally. Within the question, a less explored issue relates to the gender dependence of cooperation, which can be traced back to Darwin, who stated that "women are less selfish but men are more competitive". Indeed, gender has been shown to be relevant in several game theoretical paradigms of social cooperativeness, including prisoner's dilemma, snowd ...[more]

PMID: 24367608

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Project description:BackgroundSelf-harm and drinking are both serious problems in adolescents and many studies presented evidence of their association. However, gender differences in this association are seldom deeply discussed. Our study aimed to evaluate the prevalence of self-harm and explore its association with drinking behaviors by gender and investigate the extent to which the gender differences exist in the association between self-harm and drinking.MethodsA total of 32,362 students in grades 7 to 12 in Beijing, China were anonymously surveyed and included in our study using two-stage, stratified probability proportion sampling. Self-harm, drinking behaviors and other basic information were obtained from an anonymous questionnaire. Demographic variables, self-harm and drinking behaviors were analyzed using the Chi-square test and the Gamma test between genders and the gender differences in this association were analyzed by Log-binomial regression.ResultsThe total prevalence of self-harm was 13.7% with no significant gender difference (χ2 =0.352, P = 0.553). The prevalence of self-harm in girls decreased with age (G = -0.163, P < 0.001). Self-harm was associated with drinking behaviors in both boys and girls. The Log-binomial regression demonstrated that girls in the 16-19 years old group were at lower risk of self-harm than girls in the 12-15 years old group while this association was weaker in boys (1.493 vs 1.128). The higher OR for self-harm was found among girls with early drinking experiences compared with boys (2.565 vs 1.863). Girls who had previously drunk (i.e. drunk at least once) (2.211 vs 1.636), were currently drinking (3.400 vs 2.122) and performed binge drinking (6.357 vs 3.924) were at greater risk of self-harm than boys.ConclusionAmong high school students, self-harm has a significant positive association with drinking and girls with drinking behaviors are at higher risk of suffering self-harm. Identifying adolescents' drinking behaviors is of vital importance to self-harm prevention and special attention should be focused on younger girls.

Project description:ImportanceThe cultural roles and expectations attributed to individuals based on their sex often shape health behaviors and outcomes. Gender nonconformity (GNC) (ie, gender expression that differs from societal expectations for feminine or masculine appearance and behavior) is an underresearched area of adolescent health that is often linked to negative health outcomes.ObjectiveTo examine the associations of GNC with mental distress and substance use among high school students.Design, setting, and participantsCross-sectional study based on data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) conducted in 2015. The setting was 3 large urban US school districts (2 in California and 1 in Florida). Participants were a racially/ethnically diverse population-based sample of 6082 high school students representative of all public school students in grades 9 through 12 attending these 3 school districts.Main outcomes and measuresSex-stratified adjusted prevalence ratios (APRs) (adjusted for race/ethnicity, grade, and sexual identity) for high gender-nonconforming students (very/mostly/somewhat feminine male students or very/mostly/somewhat masculine female students) and moderate gender-nonconforming students (equally feminine and masculine students) relative to a referent group of low gender-nonconforming students (very/mostly/somewhat masculine male students or very/mostly/somewhat feminine female students).ResultsAmong 6082 high school students, 881 (15.9%) were white, 891 (19.1%) black, 3163 (55.1%) Hispanic, and 1008 (9.9%) other race/ethnicity. Among female students (2919 [50.0% of the study population]), moderate GNC was significantly associated with feeling sad and hopeless (APR, 1.22; 95% CI, 1.05-1.41), seriously considering attempting suicide (APR, 1.41; 95% CI, 1.14-1.74), and making a suicide plan (APR, 1.52; 95% CI, 1.22-1.89); however, substance use was not associated with GNC. Among male students (3139 [50.0% of the study population]), moderate GNC was associated with feeling sad and hopeless (APR, 1.55; 95% CI, 1.25-1.92); high GNC was associated with seriously considering attempting suicide (APR, 1.72; 95% CI, 1.16-2.56), making a suicide plan (APR, 1.79; 95% CI, 1.17-2.73), and attempting suicide (APR, 2.78; 95% CI, 1.75-4.40), as well as nonmedical use of prescription drugs (APR, 1.81; 95% CI, 1.23-2.67), cocaine use (APR, 2.84; 95% CI, 1.80-4.47), methamphetamine use (APR, 4.52; 95% CI, 2.68-7.61), heroin use (APR, 4.59; 95% CI, 2.48-8.47), and injection drug use (APR, 8.05; 95% CI, 4.41-14.70).Conclusions and relevanceThis study suggests mental distress is associated with GNC among female and male students. Substance use also appeared to be strongly associated with GNC among male students. These findings underscore and suggest the importance of implementing school-based programs to prevent substance use and promote student mental health that are inclusive of gender diversity in students.

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Gender differences in cooperation: experimental evidence on high school students.

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Gender differences in cooperation: experimental evidence on high school students.

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