Angela
Elite member
- Messages
- 21,823
- Reaction score
- 12,329
- Points
- 113
- Ethnic group
- Italian
There's been quite a bit of speculation, and some studies, that societies with proportionally higher numbers of men are destabilized, with more violence, in particular.
This study, if it is accurate, would indicate that perhaps the opposite is true.
See: "More Than A Few Good Men"
http://phys.org/news/2016-08-good-men-counterintuitive-outcomes-gender.html
"Male abundance is particularly worrisome to social scientists because criminological studies consistently find that men are predominantly both the perpetrators and victims of violence. Additionally, men, in general, are typically more aggressive, competitive and prone to risky behavior than women, leading to the prediction that unmarried men destabilize both families and societies. A 2004 book, "Bare Branches," (the term referring to excess unmarried men in Chinese culture) highlighted the potential dangers of such a demographic imbalance in both China and India due to the cultural practice of son preference. "Bare branches theory" became the prevailing paradigm supporting the association between male excess and family and social instability."
"The study, published today in PLOS ONE by anthropologists Ryan Schacht and Karen Kramer, finds instead that surpluses of men are associated with higher levels of marriage, relationship commitment and paternal involvement, a contrast to prevailing theories that an abundance of single men lead to outcomes of crime, violence and broken homes."
""While unbalanced sex ratios are an important source of family instability and social insecurity, it is increasingly being shown that much of our concern should be reoriented to populations with too many women.""
"The reason, Schacht believes, may lie in an economic theory of mate selection, rooted in the law of supply and demand. "If you are the relatively rare sex, you can be more demanding of a potential partner. You can be choosier, and of the partner you choose, you can be more demanding of what you want in a relationship." When faced with an abundance of women, men's "choosiness" may manifest through a preference for multiple partners and short-term, uncommitted relationships."
"The results may appear to be paradoxical. "You get more unmarried men when there are fewer of them," Schacht says. "Men may be less interested in committed relationships when they are relatively rare and partners are abundant. Men may be less interested in settling down with a single partner when there are multiple options available." He is also quick to point out that the negative outcomes associated with female-biased counties are probably not driven by the behavior of the women in those counties. "It's not the excess women who are driving the elevated levels of instability," he says. "It's more likely to be from the relatively high proportion of unmarried men."
I find this pretty persuasive.
This study, if it is accurate, would indicate that perhaps the opposite is true.
See: "More Than A Few Good Men"
http://phys.org/news/2016-08-good-men-counterintuitive-outcomes-gender.html
"Male abundance is particularly worrisome to social scientists because criminological studies consistently find that men are predominantly both the perpetrators and victims of violence. Additionally, men, in general, are typically more aggressive, competitive and prone to risky behavior than women, leading to the prediction that unmarried men destabilize both families and societies. A 2004 book, "Bare Branches," (the term referring to excess unmarried men in Chinese culture) highlighted the potential dangers of such a demographic imbalance in both China and India due to the cultural practice of son preference. "Bare branches theory" became the prevailing paradigm supporting the association between male excess and family and social instability."
"The study, published today in PLOS ONE by anthropologists Ryan Schacht and Karen Kramer, finds instead that surpluses of men are associated with higher levels of marriage, relationship commitment and paternal involvement, a contrast to prevailing theories that an abundance of single men lead to outcomes of crime, violence and broken homes."
""While unbalanced sex ratios are an important source of family instability and social insecurity, it is increasingly being shown that much of our concern should be reoriented to populations with too many women.""
"The reason, Schacht believes, may lie in an economic theory of mate selection, rooted in the law of supply and demand. "If you are the relatively rare sex, you can be more demanding of a potential partner. You can be choosier, and of the partner you choose, you can be more demanding of what you want in a relationship." When faced with an abundance of women, men's "choosiness" may manifest through a preference for multiple partners and short-term, uncommitted relationships."
"The results may appear to be paradoxical. "You get more unmarried men when there are fewer of them," Schacht says. "Men may be less interested in committed relationships when they are relatively rare and partners are abundant. Men may be less interested in settling down with a single partner when there are multiple options available." He is also quick to point out that the negative outcomes associated with female-biased counties are probably not driven by the behavior of the women in those counties. "It's not the excess women who are driving the elevated levels of instability," he says. "It's more likely to be from the relatively high proportion of unmarried men."
I find this pretty persuasive.