The biosocial female choice theory of social stratification

Bibliographic Data

ID5958481
AuthorsLee Ellis (0000-0002-3457-5617, Minot State University, corresponding author)
Year2001
Volume48
Issue3-4
Pages298-320
Publication date2001-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueBiodemography and Social Biology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1948-5565 • E-ISSN: 1948-5573
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/19485565.2001.9989040
PMID12516229
OpenAlexW2067558438
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited128

For decades, the study of social stratification has been dominated by environmental theories. Herein a theory is proposed that contains both biological and sociocultural elements. The theory asserts that most human females, like females of many other mammalian species, have evolved mating preferences biased toward males who are competent in provisioning resources. This female bias is hypothesized to have been naturally selected because females with these biases nearly always have had a reproductive edge over females who lack such a bias. One result of this bias is that human females preferentially mate with males who strive to rise in social status. This, in turn, has favored males who attain or at least strive for high social status, and who advertise and even exaggerate whatever status they already have achieved. At the genetic level, the theory postulates that alleles have accumulated on the human genome that promote social status-striving and achievement to varying degrees. To account for why males are more prone toward status-striving than females, the theory contends that one or more genes on the Y-chromosome interact with genes on the remaining human chromosomes to incline males to gravitate toward social hierarchies and to strive for niches that are relatively high in those hierarchies. Both tested and untested hypotheses are derived from the theory and compared to the empirical evidence currently available

Biology · Biosocial theory · Evolutionary biology · Evolutionary theory · Personality · Social status · Social stratification · Sociocultural evolution · Sociology · Animal Behavior and Reproduction · Demography · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior · Psychology · Social Psychology

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