God, sex, and money among the ultra-Orthodox in Israel: An integrated sociocultural and evolutionary perspective

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Abstract

The origin of the tendency for men to value wealth more than women can be explained by both social role theory and evolutionary theory. We integrate these two perspectives to provide insight into a unique cultural context, the Jewish ultra-Orthodox community in Israel, where social roles are reversed, such that women are the primary breadwinners in the family. Studies 1a and 1b provide support for social role theory's claim that men and women will internalize attitudes toward wealth that are consistent with their gender role in society. These findings are then integrated with an evolutionary perspective suggesting that men strive to elevate their personal status as a means of attracting mates. In most modern societies this equates to the accumulation of wealth, but in the ultra-Orthodox community it is religious devotion and piety that determine the status of men. An examination of mating preferences in the ultra-Orthodox community confirms many predictions from an evolutionary perspective and departs only in that women do not show a preference for mates with good financial prospects, but rather, owing to the unique sociocultural definition of status, women display a preference for men of strong religious devotion (Study 2). This contrasts with the secular Jewish community where women show the typical preference for wealthy men (Study 3). These findings are consistent with the idea that men may have evolved preferences for achieving status given the mating advantages it confers with women, but how status is achieved may be culturally specific.

Introduction

Across cultures and societies, men consistently out-earn women in the labor market (International Labor Organization, 2016; Weichselbaumer & Winter-Ebmer, 2005). This phenomenon holds true even in modern societies where women are increasingly active in accumulating capital and property (Blau & Kahn, 2007; Catalyst, 2017; U.S. Department of Labor, 2017). Data from the US census reveals that in only 15% of married households with children 18 years or younger are mothers the primary breadwinner; this is despite a nearly fourfold increase in women as the primary breadwinner between 1960 and 2011 (Wang, Parker, & Taylor, 2013).

The association between gender and wealth may even occur automatically and without conscious control. Research using the implicit association test has shown that individuals more readily associate the concept “male” with attributes such as rich and money, and “female” with terms such as poverty and penniless, relative to the reverse pairing (Williams, Paluck, & Spencer-Rodgers, 2010). Moreover, research suggests that men and women's own attitudes toward wealth are also divergent, with men reporting greater obsession with money, and a tendency to more strongly associate wealth with freedom, power, and security (Furnham, 1984; Furnham, von Stumm, & Fenton-O'Creevy, 2015; Mumford & Weeks, 2003; Sabri, Hayhoe, & Ai, 2006). Indeed, Furnham (1984) reported that men score more highly than women on a “power” factor of money attitudes. Lynn (1993) documented the robust nature of this effect, showing that men value wealth more than women across nearly twenty different countries.

In the current research we examine the utility of two theories that are well positioned to shed light on the phenomenon of sex differences in attitudes toward wealth: social role theory and evolutionary theory. Whereas social role theory asserts that these differences are the result of the internalization of societally reinforced gender roles, evolutionary theory suggests that they are due to men's striving for status to gain advantages in the mating market. Although often viewed as competing theories, here we suggest that the two can be profitably integrated to expand upon our understanding of sex differences in attitudes toward wealth, and men and women's mating preferences. To that end, we present a unique cultural context present among the ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel, where women are the primary breadwinners of the family, and examine the application of each theoretical perspective.

Social role theory claims that stereotyped representations of groups of individuals are the result of consistent observations of members of that group occupying the stereotyped role (Conway, Pizzamiglio, & Mount, 1996; Eagly, 1987; Eagly & Kite, 1987; Eagly & Steffen, 1984). In other words, the content and strength of stereotypes are drawn from real-world observations. For example, women are frequently observed caring for their families and are therefore likely to be associated with the characteristics thought to be necessary for child care, such as nurturance and warmth. This association will then foster a communal stereotype, applied broadly to all women. Consistent with social role theory, Hoffman and Hurst (1990) showed that stereotypes about novel groups stem from the type of work each group typically performs. Similarly, Koenig and Eagly (2014) demonstrated that beliefs about work-related roles (e.g., lawyer, teacher, fast food worker) in which members of social groups (e.g., Black women, Hispanics, White men) are overrepresented relative to their proportion in the general population, were strongly related to group stereotypes on both communion and agency/competence.

Social role theory has been applied extensively to the domain of gender stereotypes, notably via the biosocial model of sex differences (Eagly & Wood, 1999). This model acknowledges that biological sex differences act as a distal cause in the tendency for men and women to gravitate toward particular roles in society (e.g., women's ability to give birth and the associated hormones make it more likely that women will occupy the caregiver role), but argue that these roles are then reinforced and internalized by men and women through processes such as socialization, expectancy confirmation, and self-regulation (Wood & Eagly, 2002).

Given the fact that men tend to occupy social roles with higher status and earning capacity, and are more likely to be the primary breadwinners in a family, social role theory predicts that observations of men in this role will foster stereotypes about men's qualities and attributes that fit this role. Indeed, studies from the social-role perspective reveal that participants of both genders are likely to evaluate men as having agentic qualities (e.g., competitive and individualistic; Eagly & Steffen, 1984; Eagly & Steffen, 1986) and as having higher incomes than women (Biernat, Manis, & Nelson, 1991; Diekman & Eagly, 2000; Eagly, 1987; Eagly & Steffen, 1984; Williams et al., 2010). These stereotypes are likely to become internalized by the individuals to whom they are applied. That is, individuals will come to endorse attitudes consistent with their stereotypical role in a culture (Hogg & Turner, 1987; Pickett, Bonner, & Coleman, 2002; Sinclair, Huntsinger, Skorinko, & Hardin, 2005). For example, it is expected that in societies with traditional gender roles, women will express more positive attitudes toward motherhood, and men will express more positive attitudes toward high-status careers and wealth.

A key prediction of social role theory is therefore that stereotypes should change as social roles change. Along these lines, Diekman and Eagly (2000) demonstrated that stereotypes of women are more dynamic than stereotypes of men, owing to the larger transformation in women's social roles over time. Similarly, Eagly, Eastwick, and Johannesen-Schmidt (2009) asked participants to envision themselves as either a homemaker or a provider. Mate preferences changed according to the role envisioned; future homemakers regarded a potential mate's provider-qualities as more important, and homemaker-qualities as less important, than those who envisioned themselves as a provider. Moreover, the homemakers displayed a preference for an older spouse than what was preferred by those in the provider role. These findings support the premise of social role theory, such that attitudes, specifically mate preferences, vary as a function of one's societal role.

Thus, drawing on social role theory, we can predict that in cultures where the social roles of the breadwinner are reversed, as they are in the ultra-Orthodox community, women will display more positive attitudes toward wealth than men, owing to the internationalization of a congruent social-role stereotype, and that they will not strongly value “provider” qualities of a potential mate, as do women in other cultures where men are the primary breadwinner.

In contrast to social role theory, evolutionary theory suggests that modern men pursue wealth because, throughout human evolutionary history, men with higher status gained an advantage in mating contexts. This is owing to differences in parental investment and the process of sexual selection (Darwin, 1859, Darwin, 1871; Trivers, 1972). Biological differences in men and women's reproductive physiology requires greater obligatory parental investment from women than men. Indeed, production of viable offspring requires of women, a nine-month gestational period, and among ancestral women, a long period of breast-feeding. In contrast, men's obligatory investment ends after ejaculation. As a result of this large difference, men and women's reproductive success is optimized via different reproductive strategies. As the lower investing sex, men can reap many reproductive benefits by maximizing mating access to healthy and fertile women. Given their large investment and lower reproductive ceiling, women benefit from selecting long-term mates who are capable and willing to invest resources into their shared offspring. Such resources would have been very influential in promoting the health and overall survival prospects of one's offspring.

From this line of reasoning, it is predicted that men will prioritize attractiveness in a mate, as many features of attractiveness are signals of health and fertility, whereas women will tend to prioritize men's ability to provide resources (Buss & Schmitt, 1993). As a means to this end, women will prefer men of high social status as mates. Social status is defined as one's ability to gain access to contested resources within a group (Henrich & Gil-White, 2001). Status can generate access to resources via multiple pathways (Von Rueden, Gurven, & Kaplan, 2011). One such pathway is through dominance, such that an individual with superior strength/abilities is able to coerce others into relinquishing their resources, either through the infliction of costs, or the denial of benefits. More common in humans is social status based on prestige, that is, the ability to confer benefits on others. Given that men are better able to monopolize a larger share of resources when they are of high status in a group, women tend to prefer traits in men that indicate high status. In many modern Western cultures, men's wealth is a key indicator of status, and as a function of this, women show a strong preference for men with good financial prospects (Buss, 1989; Buss & Schmitt, 1993). It is important to note though that evolutionary theory does not predict that women are predisposed to prefer men with “wealth” in particular, but rather indicators of status, as it is status that has reliably conveyed an ability to acquire resources over the course of human evolutionary history. How status is obtained may vary from culture to culture, but women's preference for high-status mates should be relatively invariant (Pillsworth, 2008).

In summary, the evolutionary perspective posits that men should tend to strongly prioritize a partner's attractiveness, as an indicator of health and fertility. In contrast, women should tend to prefer a partner of high status, particularly high prestige, as an indicator of ability to secure access to resources. These predictions are expected to apply broadly, though determinants of status should be culturally-specific and the difference between the sexes in their relative valuation of attributes is expected to vary with key ecological variables (e.g., Pillsworth, 2008). For example, women are expected to increase the priority they place on the attractiveness of their mates in ecologies where pathogen prevalence is high, owing to the importance of selecting a healthy mate of high genetic quality. Similarly, men may display an increase in preference for the resource providing potential of their partner in ecologies where it is necessary for women to contribute a large share of nutritional assistance.

Applying this evolutionary perspective to the ultra-Orthodox community where the social role of breadwinner is reversed, we expect that women will display a preference for high status men in the community. This status is predicted to be based, not on wealth, but on men's religious devotion – owing to its value in the community. Additionally, women are expected to prefer men who are slightly older than they are, as this is a reliable indicator of status within a group (Buss, 1989; Buss & Schmitt, 1993). Men, on the other hand, are expected to show a preference for mates who are younger and physically attractive, owing to the reproductive benefits that such mates afford. Men may also display an increase in their valuation of the financial prospects of a potential partner, owing to their reliance on women as the breadwinner.

The ultra-Orthodox community in Israel presents a unique cultural context to investigate the influence of these two theoretical perspectives on men and women's attitudes toward wealth, owing to the fact that women are the primary breadwinners in this society. Despite this intriguing social structure, there is very little empirical research on the ultra-Orthodox population. This is because the ultra-Orthodox community is very isolated, even from the secular Jewish community in Israel. Most members of the community live in separate neighborhoods, send their children to separate schools, and adhere to different norms governing their daily behavior (e.g., their dress code, diet, consumption of media, observance of religious proscriptions).

This ultra-Orthodox lifestyle emerged during the Jewish “Enlightenment” in the eighteenth century in order to maintain the traditional Jewish religion that was perceived as being dismantled by a move toward more secular Judaism (Friedman, 1986; Grilak, 2002; Katz, 1958). The central value of the community is the study of the Torah (the body of law and wisdom contained in the Jewish scriptures and their sacred commentaries). Ultra-Orthodox men in Israel typically devote themselves to the study of the Torah, and therefore rarely participate in the labor force (Berman & Klinov, 1997; Gottlieb, 2007). This tradition was promoted by community leaders beginning approximately 50 years ago, in response to the destruction of religious knowledge during the Holocaust and the perceived distancing of the Jewish community from the tenets of the Torah. This led to a concerted effort to restore this knowledge and the community's connection to it. Men were encouraged to devote their life to the study of the Torah, whereas women were asked to enable this task by taking on the role of the breadwinner in the family.

The result is a unique social structure in which a strictly traditional society encourages women, but not men, to work in the public sector (Dahan, 2004; El-Or, 1993; Friedman, 1991; Spiegel, 2011; Stadler, 2009). This over-arching goal is reflected in the education system as well. Boys learn a very limited core curriculum until the age of 12, when they transition to full-time study of the Torah. In contrast, women receive a more well-rounded education parallel to the secular curriculum (Spiegel, 2011). As a result, the majority of women in the ultra-Orthodox community work, whereas the majority of men learn the Torah and do not work (Malach, Choshen, & Cahaner, 2016), and this is accepted as normative (Stadler, 2002, Stadler, 2009). This has produced a rare social structure in which men achieve status in the community, not through wealth accumulation, but through their religious devotion and achievements. Indeed, the men in the community with the highest status are those who are the most respected as religious scholars.

In the ultra-Orthodox community, marriage typically occurs between the ages of 18 and 21. The matchmaking process is usually arranged by a professional matchmaker, that is, a Shadchan. The Shadchan is someone who is well-connected within the community and able to identify suitable matches. Traditionally, the matchmaker takes into account the family background, including factors such as the family's social status, their membership in a particular sector within the community, degree of conservatism, and socioeconomic status. The prospective pairing is offered to each family, and if both agree the match is suitable, then the couple meets. The prevailing norm is that the couple makes the final decision about their suitability, and in most cases, parents avoid influencing the decision.

Different sects of the ultra-Orthodox community vary in the particulars of the matchmaking process. For example, the Hasidim follow a stricter protocol such that the process begins at a younger age (18–19 years), only a few dates take place, and the parents and leaders in the community are more involved in the final decision on marriage. In other sects, such as non-Hasidim (referred to as “Lithuanians”), and the Sephardim or Mizrahim (originating from Asia or North Africa), the practices are more relaxed, starting at a slightly older age, with a longer courtship period, and a final decision dictated by the couple.

We seek to integrate social role theory and evolutionary theory to offer insight into the unique cultural setting that the ultra-Orthodox community in Israel offers. In Study 1 we examine men and women's attitudes toward wealth in the ultra-Orthodox community in Israel (Study 1a), and among the secular community in Israel (Study 1b). These studies serve to provide evidence of the unique cultural context of the ultra-Orthodox community and test predictions based on social role theory. Given the reversal of social roles as breadwinner among the ultra-Orthodox, women will report more positive attitudes toward wealth than will men. In contrast, among the secular sample, it is expected that men will display more positive attitudes toward wealth, a finding that would replicate much of past research (Furnham, 1984; Furnham et al., 2015; Mumford & Weeks, 2003; Sabri et al., 2006).

Study 2 expands upon Studies 1a and 1b by examining whether, despite the unique cultural context, there is still evidence for evolved psychological mechanisms guiding the mate preferences of women and men. Indeed, a key aim of Study 2 is to demonstrate that, despite the bread-winner role-reversal, ultra-Orthodox women still show a preference for high-status men. The means of defining high status are culturally-specific, and in this particular culture, men's status is associated not with wealth, but rather their prestige as a religious scholar. Thus, we predict that women will show a preference not for wealthy men, but for men who are well-educated in their religious studies, and who display a deep religious devotion. Additionally, we expect that women will prefer men who are slightly older than they are, as this is a relatively invariant indicator of men's status within a group (Buss, 1989; Buss & Schmitt, 1993). Study 2 will also examine the psychological mechanisms guiding men's mate preferences in the ultra-Orthodox community. Consistent with evolutionary theorizing, men are expected to more strongly prioritize the attractiveness of their mate, including her youthfulness, as this is an indication of fertility – a fact that should be quite constant across various cultural contexts.

Study 3 builds on Study 2 by examining mate preference within the secular society of Israel, which has a normative social structure in which men are the primary breadwinners. We expect that secular women and men will demonstrate the well-established pattern of mate preferences reported in the literature (Buss, 1989; Buss & Schmitt, 1993). That is, we expect that women will show a strong preference for partners who are slightly older and who have good financial prospects, and that men will show a preference for attractive and youthful partners.

Section snippets

Study 1

In the first pair of studies, we sought to examine attitudes toward wealth in a society where gender roles are reversed, that is, where women are the primary breadwinners in the household (Study 1a) as well as in a normative, secular society (Study 1b).

Study 2

Evolutionary psychological perspectives suggest that the tendency for men to display greater desire for wealth is part of men's evolved psychology to strive for high-status within a group in order to increase mating opportunities. Consistent with this reasoning, research has documented a strong and reliable sex-difference across cultures, whereby women show a strong preference for wealthy men, or men with good financial prospects (Buss, 1989; Buss & Schmitt, 1993). However, a preference for

Study 3

Study 3 examined attitudes toward wealth, and mating preferences, in the normative sociocultural context of the secular society in Israel. Here, as is true in most modern, Westernized societies, men function as the primary breadwinner in the family. The use of this cultural context should rule out the possibility that the pattern of findings obtained in the ultra-Orthodox community is not due to the unique culture of the ultra-Orthodox community, but rather to something that applies broadly to

Discussion

Sociocultural and evolutionary perspectives are often perceived as mutually exclusive explanations for human social behavior. Here we draw on strengths of both theoretical perspectives to provide insight into the unique social structure of the ultra-Orthodox community in Israel. Based on social role theory we predicted that ultra-Orthodox women, given their role as breadwinners, would value money and wealth more than the men in their community. Consistent with this prediction, women reported

Conclusion

Applying an evolutionary perspective to understanding human psychology can have many advantages and should be employed in concert with a consideration of the sociocultural context. Evolved psychological systems, such as those for mate preferences, are likely equipped with flexibility to respond to variable ecological and cultural conditions. Far from being mutually exclusive explanations, evolved mechanisms rely on input from the environment. Here we show one potential instantiation of this

Data availability

The data associated with this research are available at: https://osf.io/56jhz/.

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    This research was sponsored by the Israel Institute [GL20057]. The authors declare that there are no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

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