thetimes.co.uk
In the 2005 Ashes Test at Edgbaston, England won one of the tensest matches in cricket history by two runs. Moments after the last wicket fell Andrew Flintoff consoled the Australian batsman Brett Lee.
In 1970 at the World Cup in Mexico, England and Brazil met for an epic struggle. After Brazil won 1-0, Pelé exchanged shirts with Bobby Moore.
Would these acts of sportsmanship have occurred if the participants had been women? A new study suggests not. Scientists have found that while men are likely to hug, console and reaffirm a friendship after sporting contests, women are more likely to make do with a swift handshake.
The research, published in the journal Current Biology, found that in the tennis matches observed by scientists men were almost three times as likely to have physical contact beyond a handshake. A third of men’s table tennis matches ended with some form of hug, compared with none of the matches between women. The result was replicated in boxing, despite overt aggression being common before bouts.
The results fitted with what evolutionary psychologists refer to as the “male-warrior hypothesis”. This is the idea that ancestral cavemen retained good relationships with unrelated competitors because they might eventually have to work together to deal with outside threats.
“We believe that human social structure resembles that of chimpanzees, in which males cooperate in groups of unrelated same-sex peers and females cooperate more with family members and one or two good friends who act as family,” Joyce Benenson, from Harvard University, said.
