<i>threatens survival of the race</i><p>Rather, anything that threatens their own inclusive fitness.<p>Apart from that you may be in the right area. In the environment in which we evolved, a successful male can theoretically have more children by having more partners, whereas a female cannot increase her progeny in this way. It also seems that an unsuccessful male is less likely to have any children than an unsuccessful female.<p>In short, variance in reproductive success is supposed to be higher in males, and its theorised that there's been a selection pressure towards more risk-taking in males. Naturally, this sort of thinking has its detractors.