Why Strong Men Don’t Share

Sharing, otherwise knows redistributing wealth, does not come naturally to everyone, and researchers at the University of California in Santa Barbara are convinced that it does not come as often of as easily to men with great upper body strength. Strange? Not so much. A UC Santa Barbara news release reports that when researchers analyzed data on bicep size, socioeconomic status, and support for economic redistribution from hundreds of people in the United States, Argentina, and Denmark, they found that stronger men are more likely to assert their economic self interest.

What counts as self-interest regarding redistribution, however, varies based on socioeconomic status. Redistribution increases the share of resources of men with fewer resources, and decreases the share of resources of wealthier men. “Men of low-socioeconomic status stand to gain, whereas men of high-status stand to lose,” the researches wrote. “What we found is that higher upper-body strength exacerbates your self-interested stance. Bigger biceps correlate with more support for redistribution among low-socioeconomic status men, and with more opposition to redistribution among high-socioeconomic status men.”

The researchers found that, conversely, men with lower upper-body strength were less likely to assert themselves. High-socioecomic status men of this group showed less resistance to redistribution, while those of low socioeconomic status showed less support.

“Our results demonstrate that physically weak males are more reluctant than physically strong males to assert their self-interest,” said one of the paper’s lead authors. What about you. Would you like to share this story?