'Blinged-out SUVs' & Life Expectancy

"From the tail of the peacock to the blinged-out SUV, males compete aggressively for female attention, and that costs them something," reads the press release for a University of Michigan (UM) study linking evolutionary forces to life expectancy.

According to researchers, gender roles in reproduction are key. While females have spent more time nurturing, and are more limited in the number of offspring they can have; males over time have engaged in risky competition to attract more mates. And they live shorter lives because of it.

"Shaped by eons of sexual competition," males are left with a weaker immune system and are less capable of processing fat than women, says a UM researcher.

Researchers came to these conclusions while seeking modern factors to explain differences in life expectancy between men and women. Instead, they found that a disparity in life expectancy "isn't a recent trend; it originates from our deep evolutionary history."