In our daily lives as women, we could encounter moments when men are not behaving the way we would like them to behave. Men do not seem to pay attention to what we are saying, they do not seem to understand us or they simply disagree with what we are saying. On the other hand, other woman are always there to listen to what we are saying, give advice and support us. I always wondered whether women are really more socially oriented than men, and I got more convinced by that statement by the time I became older and observed it more often.
Now, science has taken my thoughts to the next level.
Two researchers from the University of Edinburgh have investigated whether people’s genes have influence on their social behaviour, focussing on gender differences. The research was based on analysis of 958 (identical or non-identical) pairs of adult twins. The twins were asked questions about civic duty, work-place commitment and concern for the welfare of others.
Two researchers from the University of Edinburgh have investigated whether people’s genes have influence on their social behaviour, focussing on gender differences. The research was based on analysis of 958 (identical or non-identical) pairs of adult twins. The twins were asked questions about civic duty, work-place commitment and concern for the welfare of others.
The results of the research suggest that for women, about half of the “prosocial” traits (the willingness to help others) could be linked with genes, whereas this was just twenty per cent in men. Thus, for men, being social is less genetically influenced. The research suggests there could be different people in the world, as Mr Lewis (the main researcher) said: “some individuals may be instinctively more prosocial than others”. And as you can see in the results, by saying “some individuals”, he means women.
As a conclusion, according to the study, women have a stronger genetic tendency to help other people compared with men. I am glad I found some scientific evidence for those observations in my daily life. Maybe I can accept more easily now that men are not as prosocial as women, because, apparently, they can’t do much about that…
In my next blogs, I will try to explain other remarkable observations of my daily life with the help of science. Did you recognize the observation of this blog? And are you curious about the topic of next week's blog? Please keep checking this website!
Evelien
PS. All men who read my blog, this is absolutely no offense to the male gender. If you think I am wrong in my observations, please try to convince me and comment on this post!
Sources:
The Independent, science section: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/genetic-tests-prove-the-fairer-sex-is-kinder-too-2208515.html
Biology Letters (scientific magazine), abstract of article: http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2011/02/04/rsbl.2010.1187.abstract
Grrr, don't go hating on our gender! Haha! It was a good read though! :)
ReplyDelete"When you think negative about someone, that's mostly due to misunderstanding" ;-)
ReplyDeleteBut there's also another explanation for this phenomenon: more men are working in economic oriented jobs and research found that showing people something related to money (e.g. Monopoly money or just putting a picture of a share on the wall) is enough to make people more individualistic.
But it's not all positive for women: women have much more relational conflicts at work (in quantity and duration), probably also because they're more social.