| Abstract | In recent years, an achievement gap has emerged between the sexes, with women attending college, earning college degrees, and obtaining high-level jobs significantly more than men (Autor & Wasserman, 2013). The current research seeks to understand the possible reasons behind this phenomenon. According to the Trivers' Parental Investment Theory, women have traditionally been more selective in their mate choices because they have a higher obligatorily investment in offspring. Thus, men traditionally display characteristics that make them appealing as a mate (Trivers, 1972). The achievement gap shows a decline in this behavior, with men achieving relatively less than in previous generations. Since the advent of oral contraceptives, women are empowered to be less selective in their short-term mating partners, and therefore men are no longer motivated to display traditionally desirable traits (education, social status, access to resources, etc.). To test this hypothesis, both male and female participants were primed with information suggesting dating is difficult and requires high achievement/amounts of success or that dating is easy and requires very little achievement/success. Men who were primed to believe that dating is difficult reported elevated levels of persistence and self-control. There were no effects seen among women. These results show support for the hypothesis that a decrease in female selectivity could explain why men are currently underachieving in comparison to previous male generations. |
