Doing a little digging, Dr. Taylor and her colleagues discovered that the same was true for human studies. In laboratory studies of biological responses to stress conducted before 1995, for example, only 17 percent of subjects were women.

And the notion of a lone warrior locked in combat or surrender mode that emerged from such research did not mesh neatly with evidence from psychological studies, which showed that in stressful situations, women often sought out the company and support of others, or coped with stress by nurturing their children.

In a 1989 study, for example, Dr. Rena Repetti, also of U.C.L.A., found that mothers returning home after a stressful day at the office were more likely to devote time to their children, while fathers were more likely to withdraw or incite conflict.

For the journal report, Dr. Taylor and her colleagues reviewed several hundred studies in a variety of scientific areas, including human and animal research on the body's hormonal response to stress.

In the process, they found that oxytocin, one of a cascade of hormones released in response to stress, appeared to play a central role in females' response. Studies have linked oxytocin, which is also produced during childbirth and nursing, both with maternal behavior and with social affiliation. And animals and people with high oxytocin levels, researchers have found, are calmer, more social and less anxious.

But the effects of oxytocin during stress, Dr. Taylor and her colleagues found in their review, appear to vary between males and females. In males, male hormones like testosterone, which studies have shown increases during stress, seem to mitigate the more calming, affiliative impact of oxytocin.

The female hormone estrogen, in contrast, appears to enhance the action of oxytocin. In a study at U.C.L.A., for example, Dr. Taylor and her colleagues found that postmenopausal women who were receiving estrogen therapy had more than three times the level of oxytocin as women not receiving hormone replacement therapy. ''This may explain why women are more likely to turn to others, both their children and friends, than men are in response to stress,'' Dr. Taylor said.