Tend-and-Befriend

Tend-and-befriend is a purported behavior exhibited by some animals, including humans, in response to threat, combining the tending of offspring for their protection with the seeking out of one's social group for mutual defense. In evolutionary psychology it is theorized as having evolved as the typical female response to stress, offered as an alternative account alongside the fight-or-flight model. The theoretical model was developed by the psychologist Shelley E. Taylor and her research team at the University of California, Los Angeles, and first described in a Psychological Review article published in 2000. The theory has since been criticized as contradicting other social science research, particularly regarding how men and women actually behave under stress in non-Western cultures.