Gender differences in risk taking: A meta-analysis.

TLDR

The study highlights implications for risk‑taking theories and calls for further research on age trends. The authors conducted a meta‑analysis of 150 studies comparing male and female risk‑taking, coding tasks by type, content, and five age levels. Results show males exhibit significantly larger risk‑taking across most domains, with larger gender gaps in intellectual and physical tasks, while the gap narrows with age and over time.

Abstract

The authors conducted a meta-analysis of 150 studies in which the risk-taking tendencies of male and female participants were compared. Studies were coded with respect to type of task (e.g., self-reported behaviors vs. observed behaviors), task content (e.g., smoking vs. sex), and 5 age levels. Results showed that the average effects for 14 out of 16 types of risk taking were significantly larger than 0 (indicating greater risk taking in male participants) and that nearly half of the effects were greater than .20. However, certain topics (e.g., intellectual risk taking and physical skills) produced larger gender differences than others (e.g., smoking). In addition, the authors found that (a) there were significant shifts in the size of the gender gap between successive age levels, and (b) the gender gap seems to be growing smaller over time. The discussion focuses on the meaning of the results for theories of risk taking and the need for additional studies to clarify age trends.