Behavioral and Brain Sciences



Open Peer Commentary
Campbell: Staying alive

The relevance of sex differences in risk-taking to the military and the workplace


Kingsley R. Browne a1
a1 Wayne State University Law School, Detroit, MI 48202 kbrowne@novell.law.wayne.edu

Abstract

Sex differences in willingness to take physical risks and in concern for peer esteem may be relevant to whether women should serve in combat, since two major fears soldiers experience are of being injured and of not measuring up as warriors. Women's relative aversion to nonphysical risk may have workplace implications, since risk taking is an attribute of most successful executives.