“He Started It!” - Men significantly more likely to start a fight than women
Black News 
“He Started It!” - Men significantly more likely to start a fight than women
New research from the University of St Andrews reveals that men are significantly more likely than women to initiate direct aggression, particularly in mixed-gender pairs.
In a study published today (8th October) in Scientific Reports, results also show that women are just as likely as men to retaliate once provoked, demonstrating that the overall difference in aggression levels stemmed not from women being less aggressive generally, but from their lower likelihood to directly escalate first. It sheds new light on the complex relationship between gender, aggression, and impulsivity.
Researchers from the School of Psychology and Neuroscience observed real-time interactions between familiar pairs (friends and romantic partners) using a novel laboratory task. In contrast to traditional studies using fake opponents (computers), this study employed a face-to-face version of the Competitive Reaction Time Task, where real participants competed in a reaction time game and the winner delivered "sound blast” to the loser after each round.
The task ensured equal capacity for aggression between all participants, allowing researchers to isolate the effects of gender on behaviour.
The study also explored whether impulsivity plays a key role in these differences. By introducing brief "forced breaks" that prevented immediate retaliation, the researchers found that direct aggression levels in men dropped more sharply than in women, suggesting that impulsivity may indeed underlie the greater tendency for men to initiate aggression.
Women-only pairs exhibited the lowest levels of aggression overall, and further analyses showed that women were more likely to de-escalate conflicts with other women than with men, providing insight into how gendered expectations and perceived risks shape conflict dynamics.
The team modelled aggression as a dynamic, time-sensitive process, describing the "high beam effect," a back-and-forth escalation pattern akin to drivers flashing headlights at each other in retaliation at night. These findings provide valuable insight into how aggression builds or diffuses over time within pairs. The work underscores the importance of studying real-time interpersonal exchanges and suggests that time-out interventions, such as brief pauses before responding, could be effective in reducing impulsive aggression.
Lead author of the Study, PhD candidate Annah McCurry, said: “Understanding why some people are more aggressive than others is important, but we also need to know why the same person can be aggressive in one circumstance and not another. We found, here, that women are more likely to retaliate with aggression than to initiate aggression”.
McCurry also stresses that this study examined direct, overt aggression, and we might expect different findings if we studied relational aggression, for example.
Whilst cautious against overgeneralizing gender-based conclusions, the research is step forward in understanding the mechanisms underlying aggression, and how gender, impulsivity, and situational cues interact to shape it. It marks a significant methodological advance in aggression research and emphasizes the importance of context and interpersonal dynamics.
