Are Men Actually More Competitive Than Women?

"You've lost the warrior instinct," explained my friend's boss as he fired her after years of 100-hour work weeks. Delivered to a female employee, the comment contained an undercurrent of sexism and, when combined with some of her on-the-job experiences, probably constituted what civil rights lawyers call an "actionable statement [2]." My friend, however, chalked it up to the macho, hyper-competitive environment of her chosen profession: investment banking.

It's a classic stereotype, and not just on Wall Street: Men aggressively compete; women collaborate and nurture. It's also a view that's been well-studied in recent years by experimental economists, researchers who, rather than simply observing economic activity out in the world, put subjects in labs and ask them to play economic "games" in a controlled environment. These economists have found that American men don't disappoint, choosing to play more competitive games than female subjects (and sometimes performing better than women in competitive situations). Yet researchers have found that the stereotype isn't universal—in at least one society, women have stronger competitive drives than men. It appears that the warriors are made, not born.

(Read the rest of this article [3] at [4]Slate).