Gender and age differences in inheritance patterns - Why men leave more totheir spouses and women more to their children: An experimental analysis

By analyzing legacies in California from 1890 to 1984 Judge and Hrdy (1992) detected a gender-related difference: Men with children were statistically more likely to leave all of their property to a wife than were mothers to a husband. The authors argue that men were more likely than women to remarr y and have additional children. Thus, in order to transfer their wealth to their mutual children, men can leave it to their wives but women can avoid risks by giving it to the children directly. This hypothesis was tested by two experiments in which subjects were asked to put themselves in the posit ion of a person writing a will and allocate the wealth to the surviving spo use and the children. Age and sex of the heir/heiress were experimentally v aried. The results support the inclusive fitness interpretation.