Global Evolutionary Perspectives on Gender Differences in Religiosity, Family, Politics and Pro-Social Values Based on the Data from the World Values Survey

Abstract

Recent studies show that the global increase in gender equality does not reduce gender differences in values. These findings somewhat undermine the social role theory and increase the need for additional explanations. These findings also imply that gender differences in values may stem from some underlying universalities that persist even through changes associated with socio-economic development. This gives us reason to explore an evolutionary perspective on gender differences in values. We discuss evolutionary mechanisms that could underlie certain universal gender differences in values, and then test whether these differences are truly universal across the world (we use data from World Values Survey to search for empirical support for our evolutionary hypotheses). We provide evidence for the global scale of gender differences in religiosity, family values, political values, and pro-social values through our calculations.