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Sex Differences in Variance Traits

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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

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Synonyms

Sex differences in standard deviation; Sex differences in variability; Sex differences in variance

Definition

Members of one sex (male or female) have significantly greater dispersion or variability on a trait than members of the other sex. They contrast with sex differences in the mean of a trait.

Introduction

In statistics, the mean (or median or mode) is a measure of central tendency, whereas the variance(or standard deviation) is a measure of dispersion. Scientists commonly study mean differences between groups, when one group has a higher (or lower) mean level of a trait than (an)other group(s). As a result, most statistical techniques and tests of statistical significance involve the mean. It is less common for scientists to study group differences in variances, and there are fewer statistical techniques and tests of statistical significance that involve the variance. Nevertheless, scientists sometimes focus on group differences in variances because they are of...

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK

    Satoshi Kanazawa

Authors
  1. Satoshi Kanazawa
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Correspondence to Satoshi Kanazawa .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Oakland Univ Dept of Psycholgy, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana Weekes-Shackelford

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

    Todd K. Shackelford

  3. Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

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Kanazawa, S. (2016). Sex Differences in Variance Traits. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_34-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_34-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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