According to a study performed by the University of Zurich’s Department of Economics in Switzerland, women are mentally kinder than men. The results of which were posted to an online journal, Nature Human Behavior, in early October 2017. Researchers used pharmacology and neuroimaging to study the brains of the women and men included in the study to record their reactions to various stimuli. It was a two-part study, and the findings were nothing short of amazing, which subsequently ignited the need for further studies to take place.
For the neuroimaging part of the study, 40 men and women were analyzed. Researchers focused on a specific part of the brain: the striatum. The striatum is directly involved with the body’s neurological reward system, which helps us to make decisions and derives an opinion as to whether the situation at hand will make us happy or not. During this testing, the men reacted more selfishly to the events being presented to them and the women were more prosocial, i.e., they thought more selflessly.
During the second part of the study, researchers gave 56 people medication to alter their dopamine response. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter within the brain that is released when something makes us happy. It is responsible for many good things in our lives such as motivation if we know we are going to have positive results from what we are about to do. So, anything that we will receive pleasure from, whether it’s a good behavior or bad, dopamine will be released throughout the brain. This includes the brain’s reward system.
When the dopamine-disturbing medication was given to the people being tested, the results were opposite. This demonstrated that women, and the behavior they exhibit, was physically dependent on the proper release of dopamine. Since the dopamine release was disrupted, the women acted more selfishly than the men. The researchers found it astonishing and had a few opinions on the matter that could help to explain the results a bit more. They cited other factors that occur early on in the lives of both men and women as possibly having an impact.
They called to keep in mind the cultural differences in the way men and women are raised. Women are often raised to believe good behavior will deem a reward of some kind while most men are told to be strong and work hard. So, due to the men not being raised with the same idea as the women, their brains aren’t as likely to see a reward coming from doing a good deed.
After completing both parts of the study, researchers agreed that the reactions of the participants made it clear that women are more likely to react in a prosocial manner. Whether it is due to their internal reward system alone is unclear. They have stated that future studies should be performed to test the cultural upbringing theory into question between genders. This will allow scientists to delve even deeper into the human psyche to see how our cultures and gender differences affect how we are going to behave.
The findings in this study do not in any way mean that all women are nicer than men, nothing could be more untrue.
However, it was successful in showing how a female brain is more likely to react to certain situations when compared to a male mind and the behaviors they exhibit. Researchers are probably looking forward to performing more studies in the future on other theories related to this study.
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About The Author: Stephanie Tanner is a stay at home mother dedicated to writing on every subject she can get my hands on. Learning, writing, and being a great parent is her main passions along with cooking, gaming and staying active. Her favorite quote sums it up, “The only evil is ignorance, the only good is Knowledge” – Nick Traina
