Males outperform females in translating social relations into spatial positions

Research indicates that human males interact in groups, whereas females form one-on-one relationships. Whereas females excel in understanding intimate verbally-mediated social information, we hypothesized that males would be more sensitive to the spatial positions of friends within a group. In Study 1, we demonstrate that after a very brief exposure, compared to females, males more accurately recalled the spatial positions of individuals who were friendly with one another when their relative positions mirrored their friendship structures. In Study 2, we demonstrate that females were as accurate as males in reconstituting the positions of individuals who were not friends with one another. In Study 3, we demonstrate that the male advantage remains when indirect cues to positive group relations are used. These results support the idea that the group-based social structure of males renders them more sensitive than females to the use of relational information in reconstituting the short-term spatial locations of group members.