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An evolutionary life-history framework for understanding sex differences in human mortality rates

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Abstract

Sex differences in mortality rates stem from genetic, physiological, behavioral, and social causes that are best understood when integrated in an evolutionary life history framework. This paper investigates the Male-to-Female Mortality Ratio (M:F MR) from external and internal causes and across contexts to illustrate how sex differences shaped by sexual selection interact with the environment to yield a pattern with some consistency, but also with expected variations due to socioeconomic and other factors.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Prevention Research Center and Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, 1420 Washington Heights, 48109, Ann Arbor, MI

    Daniel J. Kruger & Randolph M. Nesse

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  1. Daniel J. Kruger
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  2. Randolph M. Nesse
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Correspondence to Daniel J. Kruger.

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Daniel J. Kruger earned his Ph.D. in Social Psychology at Loyola University Chicago and is currently an Assistant Research Scientist at the University of Michigan. His evolutionary research interests include altruism, cooperation, competition, risk, life history, mortality patterns, mating strategies, and applications for social and ecological sustainability.

Randolph M. Nesse is Professor of Psychiatry, Professor of Psychology, and Research Professor at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, where he directs the Evolution and Human Adaptation Program. His research interests are focused on Darwinian medicine, especially the origins of depression and other forms of psychopathology.

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Kruger, D.J., Nesse, R.M. An evolutionary life-history framework for understanding sex differences in human mortality rates. Hum Nat 17, 74–97 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-006-1021-z

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