Daniel J. Kruger: University of Michigan School of Public Health

Sex differences in human mortality rates stem from genetic, physiological, behavioral, and social causes that are best understood when integrated in an evolutionary life history framework. Males in many species are selected for riskier physiological and behavioral strategies that enhance reproductive success at the expense of health and longevity. 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. This presentation investigates the notion that sex differences in human mortality rates are related to levels of male competition for resources, social status, and mates, and that the actual or potential degree of skew in resource control will influence the degree of male competition and excess male mortality.
http://www.bec.ucla.edu/papers/Kruger_3.19.07.pdf