CONCERNS ABOUT DRAWING CAUSAL INFERENCES FROM METAANALYSES - AN EXAMPLE IN THE STUDY OF GENDER DIFFERENCES IN AGGRESSION

Meta-analysis has increasingly been used as an explanatory research to ol. The present investigation was designed to illustrate the potential limitations of meta-analysis for making causal inferences. Several me ta-analytic investigations have led others to conclude that gender dif ferences are getting smaller over time, however, there has been little concern regarding changes in research methodology over time. The pres ent findings indicate that the gender differences in aggression appear to be remarkably stable when changes in study characteristics over ti me are controlled. The authors discuss the implications for the use of meta-analytic procedures to make causal inferences and the implicatio ns for understanding the causes of gender differences.