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Sex Differences in Emotional Communication

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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

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Synonyms

Emotion; Emotional communication; Evolution; Sex differences; Social signals

Several studies seem to indicate that women have better interpersonal skills than men (McClure 2000), that women are more emotionally expressive than men in response to stimuli and during mental imagery (Schwartz et al. 1980), and that women report expressing their emotions more frequently and more intensely than men (Kring and Gordon 1998). Men and women also differ in the control they have over their emotional expressions, as when preschool girls appear to mask negative expressions better than boys when receiving an unattractive gift (Davis 1995). The goal of this section is to provide a brief overview of the main findings about sex differences in emotional communication, using the framework of evolutionary theory. In doing so, I will first clarify (1) the nature and function of emotional communication and (2) the evolutionary roots of sex differences in social behavior. Rather than an exhaustive...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Webster Vienna Private University, Vienna, Austria

    Marc Mehu

Authors
  1. Marc Mehu
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Correspondence to Marc Mehu .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  2. Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

    Minna Lyons

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Mehu, M. (2017). Sex Differences in Emotional Communication. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1462-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1462-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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