Under conditions of famine and cold, males, compared to females, are biologically disadvantaged by their greater size, higher basal metabolisms, and higher core body temperatures, which require greater energy to combat cold. Females, because they have more subcutaneous fat, are better insulated against the cold. In times of famine, if resources are shared, males are less likely to meet their energy needs than females. Mortality rates are normally higher for people aged 1 to 5, after which they drop. People with larger social networks family and friends live longer.
Married men live longer than single men.
It is reversed for married and single women, explained Grayson. Grayson applied these biological predictors to the Donner Party. It leads us to expect, first thing, that deaths should have fallen most heavily on the youngest and the oldest. It also leads us to expect that deaths should have fallen most heavily on the males, and it also leads us to expect that males probably die before females die, that is, that they die sooner than females. In fact, all that came to pass.