The Gallup, O’Brien, White and Wilson study from 2009 validated the idea that the majority of adolescent victims of peer aggression are abused by same-gender peers; that is 85% of victimization is directed towards same-sex peers indicating an arms race intra-sexual competition that evolved in both males and females.

Also, the study confirmed the lower age threshold of first sexual intercourse that female victims of peer aggression supposedly engage in; the more victimized you are as a female, the more sexual partners you seem to have during your lifetime and the lower the age of first sexual intercourse.

As for the males, the facts are exactly the opposite; it seems, the study concluded, the more bullying you are subjected to, the higher the age for your first sexual intercourse and the less sexual partners you will have during your lifetime. Other studies showed a direct correlation between indirect bullying (peer aggression) between females at a young adult age, that is indirect aggression through hurtful rumor spreading, and the rate of attractiveness of the victim/abuser.

It seems the more attractive you are as a female the more you are going to experience the intra-sexual competition pressures engaged by your less attractive but more angered adolescent same-sex peers. This of course is a behavioral adaptation evolved in the less attractive genetic lines of the female gender to compete with the superior more “pleasing to the eye” and thus healthier genetic set of the same gender.

How does this behavioral strategy achieve its desired effects? Well, on the one hand through communicating to other males and females signals of the victim’s promiscuity and possible infidelity a potential mate might be subjected to. Let’s call it the tribal effect, because in the early ages of our evolutionary history we lived in small groups where everyone knew everyone.

On the other hand, this behavioral routine marks its effects directly on the victim’s mind; through social manipulation by excluding, teasing, demeaning and isolating, the abuser activates certain brain mechanisms that also get turned on when one feels pain. These crude strategies of social bullying make it more likely for the victim to suffer in the future from anxiety, depression, psychosocial dysfunction and psychosomatic illnesses and other incapacitating dysfunctions that will lower the victim’s future success in the matting arena.

       So here we have it : for the female gender, the more attractive you are the more victimized you are by your same-sex peers who are trying to compensate their unattractiveness by adopting demeaning psychological strategies; on the other hand the less attractive you are, the more likely is you are going to adopt a aggressive intrasexual competition strategy and become a social bully. As for the male part, the more bullied you are, the less sexual partners you are going to have during the course of your lifetime, and the higher the age you will experience your first sexual intercourse.

        But there seems to be an interesting dilemma on the female part of the discussion. It seems we have ourselves an arms race going on right here. Who is really more sexually active and who has the earliest first sexual intercourse? The bully unattractive female or the victimized attractive one. That’s what Daniel D. White from The Department of Anthropology at The University at Albany and Andrew C. Gallup from The Department of Biological Sciences at Binghamton University tried to answer in their recent study that addressed specifically this very issue.

The major goal of their study was to verify the hypothesis of whether females who report higher than average indirect aggression towards same-sex peers in adolescence will also report earlier ages at first sexual intercourse. And that is exactly what they found out. This behavioral strategy is indeed an adaptation. Females who engaged in indirect aggression strategies during adolescence reported earlier ages at first sexual intercourse than less aggressive ones.

Of course, future studies will have to deal with potential errors in miss-reports of females that took part in the study; that is we do not know for sure if aggressive females didn’t lie to cover their frustrations or the attractive ones didn’t lie to cover their promiscuity; the researchers just took for granted the sincerity if the female subjects. The study also confirmed the hypothesis that indirect victimization in adolescence will predict fewer than average sex partners and later than average ages at first intercourse in males. And that is what several other studies have shown.

       The conclusions of the study are pretty telling. There is a strong correlation between between age at first sexual intercourse and the adoption of indirect aggression behavioral tactics by less attractive females. The three most effective psychological mechanism used by both females and male peer abusers are the attacks on self-esteem like teasing, isolating and excluding others during middle school. The researches say the earlier these skills are in place the more potential reproductive advantage they may supply in both females and males.

       Although the conclusions of the study seem optimistic for some of you that might think to use this information for your personal use, our advice boys and girls is : “Do not try this at home!”; and as Richard Dawkins put it : “We, alone on earth, can rebel against the tyranny of the selfish replicators” is a welcomed plea to liberation for you more pessimistic readers.

Want to find out more? Here is a list of Highly Rated books on Amazon.com about Bullying Prevention where you can find out more valuable information:

References:
- EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY JOURNAL 2010 (www.epjournal.net) -> Indirect Peer Aggression in Adolescence and Reproductive Behavior