In their target article, Benenson, Webb, and Wrangham introduce an impressively broad model that emphasizes the evolutionary origins of gender differences in self-protective responses to major physical and social threats. Here we offer another way of understanding such differences. We propose the various physiological, behavioral, and emotional responses to social and physical threats exhibited more by women than men are instead rooted in status and power differences as well as gender stereotypes, roles, and norms.

Social role theory provides the theoretical scaffolding for our argument and suggests that gender differences arise through gender socialization and the placement of men and women in different roles in society (Wood & Eagly, Reference Wood and Eagly2002). According to the theory, basic biological differences between women and men, including differences in childbearing, physical strength, and size, led to a historical and contemporary division of labor (i.e., different social roles) in society. Social structural features, particularly power and status differences associated with the different social roles women and men occupy, are the primary cause of observed differences between the sexes. This division of labor accounts for why women are more communal and men are more agentic. Women are primarily responsible for domestic labor and childcare, even when employed, leading them to be more communal. Men are primarily responsible for work, leading them to be more agentic. This division of labor leads to different beliefs about women and men (e.g., stereotypes) and how they should behave (e.g., gender roles and norms). From this view, women's self-protective responses to social and physical threat result from sociocultural forces, including women's lower status and power in society, gender stereotypes, and gender roles and rules.

In what follows we briefly review evidence consistent with this view. Before continuing, however, it is important to point out what we are not saying. We are not disputing that the human brain is a product of evolution. That is trivially true. Social role theory is a “biosocial constructionist theory” that proposes that cultural processes interact with evolutionary forces (Eagly & Wood, Reference Eagly and Wood2013; Wood & Eagly, Reference Wood and Eagly2002). The question is how and in what ways evolutionary forces shaped women and men, not about whether such forces had an influence.

The authors of the target article cite research showing that women report greater pain, both when experimentally induced in the laboratory and clinically. The authors suggest that this is an evolved self-protective response to physical threat on the part of women, however, research demonstrates such differences are mediated, in part, by gender roles (Sanford, Kersh, Thorn, Rich, & Ward, Reference Sanford, Kersh, Thorn, Rich and Ward2002). In this case, gender differences in femininity predicted pain tolerance and perception. A similar role for gender roles in pain can be found across many studies (Fillingim, King, Ribeiro-Dasilva, Rahim-Williams, & Riley, Reference Fillingim, King, Ribeiro-Dasilva, Rahim-Williams and Riley2009). Further, both women and men have the stereotype that women are more sensitive to pain and more willing to report pain. Such stereotypes predict sex differences in pain tolerance and perception (Fillingim et al., Reference Fillingim, King, Ribeiro-Dasilva, Rahim-Williams and Riley2009).

The authors cite research showing that women tend to smile more, they are more polite, and they are better able to identify other's emotions during social interaction than men. The authors suggest these differences are an evolved self-protective response to social threats on the part of women. However, research shows that such differences are shaped by sociocultural forces. There are strong sex-based norms for smiling, with smiling being more acceptable for women because women are supposed to be communal and expressive (LaFrance, Hecht, & Paluck, Reference LaFrance, Hecht and Paluck2003). Women also smile more than men due to their social roles within society. Sex differences in smiling are reduced when men and women occupy the same social role (LaFrance et al., Reference LaFrance, Hecht and Paluck2003). Research demonstrates that gender roles and rules can explain women's greater ability to decode the emotional expressions of others (Brody & Hall, Reference Brody, Hall, Lewis, Haviland-Jones and Barrett2008), and their greater use of tentative speech (Kalbfleisch & Herold, Reference Kalbfleisch, Herold, Dindia and Canary2006).

The authors argue that greater self-reports of negative emotion by women reflect a greater reaction to threat, however great caution should be taken when interpreting sex differences in self-reported emotion. Many studies show that on retrospective self-reports women report greater general emotionality as well as experiencing specific emotions with greater frequency. These differences disappear when emotional experiences are measured in the moment (i.e., online emotion reports; Robinson & Clore, Reference Robinson and Clore2002). Daily diary studies that capture emotion dynamics in real time, for example, find no differences in the emotional lives of women and men (Barrett, Robin, Pietromonaco, & Eyssell, Reference Barrett, Robin, Pietromonaco and Eyssell1998). In other research, women and men in the laboratory played a word game competition where some participants were asked their emotional reactions immediately after the game, and others reported them a week later. Results showed no gender differences in immediate online emotional reports, but a stereotypic pattern of emotional report was evident at 2 weeks (Robinson, Johnson, & Shields, Reference Robinson, Johnson and Shields1998). These and other studies suggest that the emotional lives of women and men are nearly identical.

Many of the various other self-protective reactions mentioned in the target article have also been explained via mechanisms other than evolutionary ones. Women's lack of social power and gender roles makes them more vulnerable to depression (Nolen-Hoeksema, Reference Nolen-Hoeksema2001). Due to their lower status and gender roles, they face more chronic strains and stressors in their lives than men, making them more likely to develop depression since the experience of stressful life events strongly contributes to depression. Gender roles and rules also play a role in gender differences in anxiety disorders (McLean & Anderson, Reference McLean and Anderson2009). Increased stress can also have detrimental impacts on immunity, contributing to differences between women's and men's stress responses (Verma, Balhara, & Gupta, Reference Verma, Balhara and Gupta2011).

We conclude by suggesting the authors may have prematurely jumped to evolutionary conclusions when other sufficiently complete explanations, in this case gender differences in status and power, gender roles and rules, are readily available.