Gender‑Equality Paradox in Motives

A recent cross‑national dataset (Ko et al., 2026) finds that sex differences on core social motivations — caregiving, threat avoidance, status seeking — not only persist but in some cases grow in more gender‑equal countries. This suggests equality in rights and opportunities does not mechanically erase underlying average differences in priorities and motivations. — If robust, this pattern reshapes policy arguments that assume parity in preferences will follow from formal gender equality and affects debates over family policy, workplace design, and diversity interventions.