Sex Differences in Social Cynicism Across Societies: The Role of Men's Higher Competitiveness and Male Dominance

If male dominance in society causes women to be more cynical, women should show higher social cynicism than men in diverse cultural contexts. This conjecture was evaluated in a global study of social axioms, or general beliefs about the world, which involved university students from 40 societies and adults from 17 societies. Results showed that contrary to this expectation, men were generally more cynical than women. Men's higher concern for competition may be one factor that contributes to their higher cynicism. In line with this argument, compared to women, men generally showed higher reward for application, the belief in the usefulness of effort and application, but lower fate control, which involves the belief that events are preordained but alterable. These findings suggest that the effect of male dominance on women's social cynicism may be overridden by men's higher concern for competitiveness. Consistent with the argument that male dominance increases women's social cynicism, sex differences in social cynicism were smaller in societies where women had lower status. An implication of this finding is that women's status in society is more reflective of the level of male dominance than women's tendency to be competitive. © The Author(s) 2012.