Chapter 8 Summary and Analysis

Studies on the pine mole show that there are significant differences between the abilities, especially in terms of spatial judgments, between male and female pine moles. Male pine moles are polygamous and live in networks of tunnels underground. The male needs to have a keen ability to remember locations in the tunnels to find and protect his many wives. Given the impact of sexual selection on other cultural and biological processes as well as our polygamous past, is it possible that human beings are similar to pine roles in this regard? The rest of the chapter makes a case that male and female brains are different in significant ways as a result of the effects of sexual selection and the sexual arms race for reproduction between males and females.

This conclusion, that males and females have different minds, is often seen...