ArticleEvolutionary psychology : an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behavior2012
Is self-sacrificial competitive altruism primarily a male activity?
Article in Evolutionary psychology : an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behavior, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
7 citing papers in PubMed, 43 citations in OpenAlex.
- Kill them with kindness: preliminary evidence for women's competitive altruism.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Ethics trumps resources in women's and men's evaluations of potential mates and competitors.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- The benefits of being seen to help others: indirect reciprocity and reputation-based partner choice.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021Article
- Looking Like a Million Dollars: Does Attractiveness Priming Increase Altruistic Behavior in Experimental Games?Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- No good deed goes unpunished: the social costs of prosocial behaviour.Evolutionary human sciences · 2021Review
- The Signaling Theory of Symptoms : An Evolutionary Explanation of the Placebo Effect.Evolutionary psychology : an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behavior · 2015Article
- The evolution of leader-follower reciprocity: the theory of service-for-prestige.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2014Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
This study explored the basis of self-sacrificial prosocial behavior in small groups. Seventy-eight undergraduates (39M, 39F) filled out a thirty-item personality scale and then participated in a "group problem-solving study" in which the monetary success of a three-person group depended upon one of its members volunteering to endure pain (a cold stressor test) and inconvenience (being soaked in a dunk tank). There were 13 groups consisting of two females and one male, and 13 groups consisting of two males and one female. Across groups, the behavior of the altruist was judged to be more costly, challenging, and important and he/she was liked better, rewarded with more money, and preferred as a future experimental partner. Groups containing two males showed more evidence of competition to become altruists than groups containing two females, and personality traits were more effective predictors of altruistic behavior in males than in females. We conclude that competition between males and "showing off" are key factors in triggering self-sacrificial altruistic behavior.
Indexed as
Identifiers
22833848PMC10480791W2314163371What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.