Evolutionary theory suggests that commonly found sex differences are largest in healthy populations and smaller in populations that have been exposed to stressors. We tested this idea in the context of men’s typical advantage (vs. women) in visuospatial abilities (e.g., mental rotation) and women’s typical advantage (vs. men) in social-cognitive (e.g., facial-expression decoding) abilities, as related to frequent binge drinking. Four hundred nineteen undergraduates classified as frequent or infrequent binge drinkers were assessed in these domains. Trial-level multilevel models were used to test a priori Sex × Group (binge drinking) interactions for visuospatial and social-cognitive tasks. Among infrequent binge drinkers, men’s typical advantage in visuospatial abilities and women’s typical advantage in social-cognitive abilities was confirmed. Among frequent binge drinkers, men’s advantage was reduced for one visuospatial task (Δ d = 0.29) and eliminated for another (Δ d = 0.75), and women’s advantage on the social-cognitive task was eliminated (Δ d = 0.12). Males who frequently engaged in extreme binges had exaggerated deficits on one of the visuospatial tasks, as did their female counterparts on the social-cognitive task. The results suggest sex-specific vulnerabilities associated with recent, frequent binge drinking, and support an evolutionary approach to the study of these vulnerabilities.

进化理论表明，常见的性别差异在健康人群中最大，在暴露于压力源的人群中较小。我们在男性在视觉空间能力（例如，心理旋转）方面的典型优势（相对于女性）和女性在社会认知（例如面部表情解码）能力方面的典型优势（相对于男性）的背景下测试了这个想法，作为相关经常暴饮暴食。在这些领域评估了 419 名被归类为频繁或不频繁暴饮暴食者的本科生。试验级多级模型用于测试视觉空间和社会认知任务的先验性×组（狂饮）交互。在不经常酗酒的人中，男性在视觉空间能力方面的典型优势和女性在社会认知能力方面的典型优势得到证实。d = 0.29）并被淘汰（Δ d = 0.75），女性在社会认知任务上的优势被淘汰（Δ d = 0.12）。经常参与极端狂欢的男性在其中一项视觉空间任务上存在夸大的缺陷，女性同行在社会认知任务中也是如此。结果表明与最近频繁暴饮暴食相关的性别特异性脆弱性，并支持研究这些脆弱性的进化方法。