Women are nicer when they're stressed!
...But men meaner. Apparently.
Stress turns men into douchebags, while women take it on the chin and actually become more likeable.
The International School for Advanced Studies of Trieste, the Social Cognitive Neuroscience Unit of the University of Vienna and the University of Freiburg gathered to make this research and looked at men and women’s responses to other people’s emotions straight after a ‘moderately stressful situation’.
“What we observed was that stress worsens the performance of men in all three types of tasks”, explained researcher Giorgia Silani.
“The opposite is true for women".
stressed out men become more self-centred and less able to distinguish their own emotions from other people’s. While women are all over that shizz, and are therefore ‘prosocial’.
"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".
Psychologist Rachel Clements says: “Stress isn’t always a negative thing. If it’s at the right level it can help us with communication, goals, deadlines etc.".
“Women are more effective at managing it and using it then to enhance their resilience, performance, communication and relationships. Whereas men are generally less capable of managing stressful emotions and have a proneness to snap”.
A healthy and active lifestyle is the best solution to deal with stress.
“A good diet and regular exercise is one of the most efficient and best ways to deal with stress”, she advises.
“Mindful activities like yoga, Pilates or meditation can also help you with choosing how to think and how to process stressful emotions. Again, women are more commonly involved with these kinds of activities, which encourage you to actively manage your emotions and take a step back to stop to think before reacting”.
