Review of David C. Geary’s Evolution of Vulnerability: Implications for Sex Differences in Health and Development

Abstract

Reviews the book, Evolution of Vulnerability: Implications for Sex Differences in Health and Development by David C. Geary (2015). Two key questions drive this book: Why are some traits more easily disrupted by stressors than others? Why does the impact of environmental stressors often differ between the sexes? Geary announces the answers to his questions that traits that have been elaborated through social and sexual selection are especially vulnerable to disruption by environmental and social stressors. Much to Geary’s credit, he devotes several pages to female competition, although he oddly omits the so-called cooperative breeding species that are among the most aggressive: The single reproducing female expels or attacks any subordinate who becomes pregnant. After outlining the nature of sexual selection, Geary closes in on his central theme. Basically, his argument involves three steps: (1) Identify traits that have been sexually selected, noting in which sex they have been elaborated; (2) Demonstrate that these traits are condition dependent, and if possible, identify the age at which they are most easily disrupted; and (3) Show that they are more vulnerable to disruption than a comparator trait. This is a book of outstanding scholarship with impressive attention to detail—in some places, too much detail. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)