Are women less risk averse than men? The effect of impending death on risk-taking behavior

Abstract The purpose of this article is to present empirical tests of the hypothesis that women are more risk averse than men in the case of impending death. More precisely, we compare male and female attitudes toward risk of health degradation and in the extreme case of risk of life loss. From mult...

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Published inEvolution and human behavior Vol. 29; no. 6; pp. 396 - 401
Main Authors Harrant, Valérie, Vaillant, Nicolas G
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Elsevier Inc 01.11.2008
Elsevier
Subjects
Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome
Blood Diseases
D81
Death
Economics and Finance
Health
Health Behavior
Human immunodeficiency virus
Humanities and Social Sciences
I12
J16
J17
Mortality
Mortality risk
Psychiatry
Risk
Sex Differences
Sex differentiation
Social behaviour
Value of life
J17
Mortality risk
Sex differences
Value of life
I12
D81
J16
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Summary:Abstract The purpose of this article is to present empirical tests of the hypothesis that women are more risk averse than men in the case of impending death. More precisely, we compare male and female attitudes toward risk of health degradation and in the extreme case of risk of life loss. From multivariate analysis, we find that women infected by the HIV virus exhibit less risk taking than men in their contestation behavior. However, other factors including age of the individual at infection, health state (HIV+ vs. full-blown AIDS), medical state (hemophiliac or not), and nationality influence risk-taking behavior. We analyze the impact of these independent variables in risk taking when the sex variable is controlled in the regression equation.
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ISSN:1090-5138
1879-0607
DOI:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2008.05.003