Does Stress Effect Women and Men Differently? Yes! Research Show that Stress Undermines Emphatic Abilities in Men But Increases Them in Women. Men Respond to Stress Differently Than Women.
A former sweetie pie of mine was stressed. He had made the
decision to leave a secure job and take a new one that required much more
responsibility. I understood his level of stress, I am a very supportive
partner in relationships, perhaps too supportive but, man, it was tough to deal
with him. He could only focus talk about and be crazy about this job change 24
hours a day. He became a whirling dervish, easily exploding in anger at
everyone from waiters, pizza guy to anyone else in his path and my thoughts,
feelings and needs disappeared completely. There are stressful times in all
relationships, but if you have ever wondered why men may focus more on
themselves when under stress than women do under stress read this article.
Stress Undermines Emphatic Abilities in Men
but Increases Them in Women
March 17, 2014
Sissa Medialab
Stressed males tend
to become more self-centered and less able to distinguish their own emotions
and intentions from those of other people. For women the exact opposite is
true. Stress, this problem that haunts us every day, could be undermining not
only our health but also our relationships with other people, especially for
men. Stressed women, however, become more “prosocial” according to new
research.
Stressed males tend to
become more self-centered and less able to distinguish their own emotions and
intentions from those of other people. For women the exact opposite is
true. Stress, this problem that haunts us every day, could be undermining
not only our health but also our relationships with other people, especially
for men. Stressed women, however, become more “prosocial,” according to new
research.
Related Articles
These are the main
findings of a study carried out with the collaboration of Giorgia Silani, from
the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) of Trieste. The study was
coordinated by the Social Cognitive Neuroscience Unit of the University of
Vienna and saw the participation of the University of Freiburg. This is the
main finding of a study just published in Psychoneuroendocrinology,
carried out with the collaboration of SISSA in Trieste.
"There's a subtle
boundary between the ability to identify with others and take on their
perspective -- and therefore be empathic -- and the inability to distinguish
between self and other, thus acting egocentrically" explains Silani.
"To be truly empathic and behave prosocially it's important to maintain
the ability to distinguish between self and other, and stress appears to play
an important role in this."
Stress is a psycho-biological
mechanism that may have a positive function: it enables the individual to
recruit additional resources when faced with a particularly demanding situation. The individual can cope with
stress in one of two ways: by trying to reduce the internal load of
"extra" resources being used, or, more simply, by seeking external
support. "Our starting hypothesis was that stressed individuals
tend to become more egocentric. Taking a self-centred perspective in fact
reduces the emotional/cognitive load. We therefore expected that in the
experimental conditions people would be less empathic" explains Claus
Lamm, from the University of Vienna and one of the authors of the paper.
The surprise was that
our starting hypothesis was indeed true, but only for males. In the
experiments, conditions of moderate stress were created in the laboratory (for
example, the subjects had to perform public speaking or mental arithmetic
tasks, etc.). The participants then had to imitate certain movements (motor
condition), or recognise their own or other people's emotions (emotional
condition), or make a judgement taking on another person's perspective
(cognitive condition). Half of the study sample were men, the other half were
women.
"What we observed
was that stress worsens the performance of men in all three types of tasks. The
opposite is true for women" explains Silani.
Why this happens is
not yet clear. "Explanations might be sought at several levels,"
concludes Silani. "At a psychosocial level, women may have internalized
the experience that they receive more external support when they are able to
interact better with others. This means that the more they need help -- and are
thus stressed -- the more they apply social strategies. At a physiological level, the gender difference
might be accounted for by the oxytocin system. Oxytocin is a hormone connected
with social behaviors and a previous study found that in conditions of stress
women had higher physiological levels of oxytocin than men."
Story Source:
The above story is
based on materials provided by Sissa Medialab. Note:
Materials may be edited for content and length.
Journal Reference:
1. L. Tomova, B. von Dawans, M. Heinrichs, G.
Silani, C. Lamm. Is stress affecting our ability to tune into others?
Evidence for gender differences in the effects of stress on self-other
distinction. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 2014; 43: 95 DOI:10.1016/j.psyneuen.2014.02.006
Cite This Page:
Sissa Medialab.
"Stress undermines empathic abilities in men but increases them in
women." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 17 March 2014.
095927.htm>.
Patti Wood, MA, Certified Speaking Professional - The Body Language Expert. For more body language insights go to her website at www.PattiWood.net. Check out Patti's website for her new book "SNAP, Making the Most of First Impressions, Body Language and Charisma" at www.snapfirstimpressions.com. Also check out Patti's YouTube channel at http://youtube.com/user/bodylanguageexpert.
