Sex differences in costly signalling in rural Western China

Numerous empirical studies suggest that individuals convey their commitment to communities and impart the qualities of being a reliable partner through costly behaviours. We collected religious practices data ranging from daily trivial practices to infrequent grand distant pilgrimages in an agricultural Tibetan village. We predict that 1) villagers who invest more in religious practices are more likely to be nominated as having various prosocial qualities. 2) Investment in grand distant pilgrimages has more efficacy than daily trivial religious acts on recognition of prosocial qualities. 3) The males are more likely to receive nominations than females across all prosocial traits. Using Hurdle Models and Exponential Random Graph Models, we found that religious practice is mediated by demographic factors like wealth rank, age, and the gender. Daily religious investment positively associates with nominations of devoutness, but not with other prosocial traits. Distant pilgrimage positively ...