Backstabbing, rumor spreading and shunning may be a relatively accurate representation of women, according to a new study.
As reported by the Huffington Post, new research published by the Royal Society has explored the scientific basis for "competition and aggression" between women, and found that they have most likely evolved to be mean to one another.
Although both sexes compete for resources to survive and for mates, women tend to show aggression indirectly most of the time, so there's less risk of retaliation.
"Women do compete, and they can compete quite fiercely with one another," said Tracy Vaillancourt, the paper's author and a psychology professor at the University of Ottawa in Canada. "The form it typically takes is indirect aggression, because it has a low cost: The person [making the attack] doesn't get injured. Oftentimes, the person's motives aren't detected, and yet it still inflicts harm against the person they're aggressing against."
Researchers also found that women tend to form alliances against other women to reduce the risk of retaliation. Scientists found "coalitions or alliances may reduce risk of retaliation" - a theory to explain why groups of women gang up on others - as famously mocked in the 2004 Lindsay Lohan comedic film "Mean Girls".
Dedicating a whole journal issue to the theme and inviting international evidence from across disciplines, researchers found the "constraints of offspring production and care" meant it favored the female of the species to resort to low-risk forms of aggression, such as indirect aggression.
Evolutionary Psychologist Anne Campbell said because of women's role in childbearing and rearing, they're less expendable than men and couldn't risk injury by settling disputes with their fists.
That doesn't mean men can't also be indirectly aggressive. Campbell told Live Science that by adulthood, both sexes are equally capable of being mean and cliquey - especially at work.
According to researchers, since Darwin first put forward his theories on reproductive competition, extensive research has been done on how more expendable men developed larger body size, use of weaponry and ritualized displays of aggression.
"Despite a history of being largely overlooked, evidence is now accumulating for the widespread evolutionary significance of female competition," report's authors Paula Stockley and Anne Campbell said.
