According to Shelly Taylor and her colleagues, why is the behavioral tendency toward affiliation ...

Indeed, men are behaviorally more likely to fight or flee when threatened; however, they argue that women are more likely to affiliateto seek out others in order to form groups for joint protection. Fight-or-flight behaviors for women, they contend, are not adaptive to survival of the species when women are responsible for carrying a child in pregnancy and later nursing and tending to the child when the child is most vulnerable. They note that it is safer for the protection of her offspring for a pregnant woman or a woman with a child to seek protection in groups than to fight or flee when confronted with a threat (e.g., a predator). Thus, they contend, this behavioral tendency toward affiliation is stronger in females than males.