RESEARCH CENTRE: Men and women are not that different
Findings of a new scientific study suggest that there may be little if any truth in the saying that men are from Mars and women, from Venus. PHOTO| FILE
What you need to know:
Explaining these findings which have been published in the journal American Psychologist, the researchers say that people tend to overestimate gender differences because they only notice extremes in shared characteristics.
Also, people tend to notice multiple differences simultaneously. While they agree that men and women do have their differences, they note that some behavioural differences may not be genetic but may be learned through socialisation.
For instance, a man is raised to understand that he should be able to tolerate more pain.
Findings of a new scientific study suggest that there may be little if any truth in the saying that men are from Mars and women, from Venus.
The study by psychologists from the US shows that men and women are more alike than most people imagine. It looks like both sexes are from the same planet.
During the study, 100 personality characteristics reported by 12 million people were analysed. First they looked into the common male and female stereotypes which paint men as aggressive risk takers and women as soft beings who like to gossip. Then they analysed the actual characteristics of the study subjects and found an almost 80 per cent overlap between men and women for more than 75 per cent of the reported psychological characteristics analysed including risk-taking, stress and morality.
Similarities in the sexes
These similarities in men and women remained true regardless of whether the researchers looked into cognitive domains like intelligence and social personality and personality traits on wellbeing. The findings also remained consistent regardless of the age of the study subjects.
Still, the researchers found that men and women are not exactly the same. Significant differences between men and women were found in 10 characteristics.
While men were found to be aggressive and masculine, women were found to be more sensitive to pain and to have a closer attachment to their peers. They also found differences in both interest and ability between the genders but these differences were not as large as people think.
Explaining these findings which have been published in the journal American Psychologist, the researchers say that people tend to overestimate gender differences because they only notice extremes in shared characteristics.
Also, people tend to notice multiple differences simultaneously. While they agree that men and women do have their differences, they note that some behavioural differences may not be genetic but may be learned through socialisation.
For instance, a man is raised to understand that he should be able to tolerate more pain.
