Citation

Evans L. Chance 2006; 19(1): 10-21.

Affiliation

Science Serving Society

Copyright

(Copyright © 2006, Springer-Verlag)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

As males and females are treated differently in all societies from birth (today possibly even before birth), socialization explanations are always possible for any observed sex-dependent outcome. While 73% of the more than a million people killed annually in all types of road traffic crashes are male, sex-dependent treatments, expectations, and laws can contribute hugely to this disparity. In an extreme example, societies that do not issue driversâ?? licenses to females find that nearly all driver fatalities are male. On the other hand, there is evidence hinting that some behavior differences may be rooted in innate or biological differences between the sexes, contributing to an ongoing nurture versus nature debate.

Here, we provide information relevant to this debate from traffic fatality data. The number of traffic fatalities is so enormous that highly specific outcomes that have a greater chance of revealing innate sex differences can be examined.

This paper cannot establish that the effects found are innate. However, I believe the simplest and most plausible interpretation is that the effects reported reflect intrinsic behavioral differences between the sexes originating at a hormonal level.

Language: en