The Sister Paradox: Why Women and Girls Show More Aggression at Home

Extensive research shows that men are generally more aggressive than women. However, a survey of 4,136 people across 24 countries revealed an exception to this pattern: aggression is more pronounced in sibling relationships (1^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Commonly observed sex differences in direct aggression are absent or reversed in sibling contexts

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Sibling and Peer Aggression: A Lifespan Study on Gender Differences

Douglas T. Kenrick and Michael E.W. Warnum, along with a team of 49 colleagues, asked participants how often they had acted aggressively towards a sister, a brother, a female friend, a male friend, a female acquaintance, or a male acquaintance—both when they were children and when they were adults.

Aggressive actions included both direct aggression, such as hitting/slapping or yelling, as well as reputational aggression, such as sharing harmful gossip, or reporting someone’s behavior to an authority—“telling” in a childhood context.

More than Hitting: Understanding the Scope of Aggression

Women and girls were also just as likely to be indirectly aggressive to siblings as men and boys were, both in childhood and adulthood.

Patterns of sibling aggression by sex were not correlated with country-level gender equality indicators.

The trend held in wealthier and poorer countries and in Western and Non-Western cultures, suggesting to the authors that the contextual effect of sibling relationships on female aggression may well be universal.

According to the authors, a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between sex and aggression should include the social context in which it occurs.

Reference:

1. Commonly observed sex differences in direct aggression are absent or reversed in sibling contexts - (https://academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/article/4/8/pgaf239/8240672?login=false)

Source-Eurekalert