Skip to main content

Social Outcomes and Sex Ratio

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

Synonyms

Behavioral adaptations to variation in human sex ratios; Consequences of imbalanced sex ratios

Definition

Social outcomes that are associated with variation in the relative share of men and women active on a mating market.

Introduction

An imbalanced sex ratio, that is, a male or female surplus on the mating market, may occur due to sex-selective fertility, mortality, or migration dynamics (Dyson 2012). For instance, in parts of Asia and Europe, continued son preference, fertility decline (in the case of China’s one-child policy legally prescribed), and the spread of ultrasound technology facilitating sex-selective abortions are seen as the main contributors to a trend of demographic “masculinization” (Guilmoto 2009; Hudson and Den Boer 2005). In 2004, for instance, the nationwide average for the sex ratio at birth was at about 120 and 112 boys per 100 girls born in China and India, respectively. In some provinces it was even higher, thus clearly exceeding the ratio of about...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sebastian Schnettler .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Section Editor information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Schnettler, S., Filser, A. (2021). Social Outcomes and Sex Ratio. In: Shackelford, T.K., Weekes-Shackelford, V.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-19650-3_2022

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics