In a relationship, the thought always comes up that the other person must come from another planet. Men and women think and feel differently – this is also proven by science.
No, it doesn’t just seem like your partner sometimes doesn’t understand you at all. Researchers have found that positive and negative stimuli actually trigger different brain activity in men and women. From a psychological point of view, however, education also plays a major role.
Men have been taught for generations not to show their feelings the way women do. You should be strong. Masculinity is associated with lack of emotion, strength and power. Showing weakness and emotional impulses such as crying are often dismissed: “A real boy does not cry” and similar sayings follow. But the problem is that men don’t learn to think, feel and express their feelings emotionally. All behaviors that play an important role, especially in a partnership.
The psychologist Björn Süfke gave an interview to the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” on the subject of how men express their feelings and says: “Men do indeed often express their feelings through anger. Anger is the only feeling they are allowed and women are denied. That’s why I also say: If a man is angry, it can just as well be that he is actually helpless, sad or afraid”. An interesting theory, but it also makes it difficult to have a good basis for communication and understanding in a relationship. “On average, men cry once a month, but women three times,” says the psychologist.
Men communicate differently than women
This phenomenon can also be found in friendships between men. Who does not know it? Men who rant among themselves about whiskey, play Fifa or discuss politics instead of asking their separated friend how he is doing, what he feels and how he is coping? Women tend to communicate differently, especially with each other. According to Süfke, all of these differences can be traced back to the “male upbringing” of our society.
But different processes in the sexes can also be detected in the brain using magnetic resonance imaging. The scientists at the Jagiellonian University Hospital in Poland carried out a study that was able to prove medically that different brain areas are addressed in men and women when they have the same stimuli and impressions: “Men usually concentrate on sensory impressions when they perceive and direct emotional stimuli the necessary instructions for action, while women pay more attention to the feelings that are triggered by emotional stimuli,” confirms Andrzej Urbanik, head of the radiology department.
In relationships, we often talk past each other and even activate other brain regions
The researchers showed the subjects, who all ranged in age from 18 to 36, positive and negative images. The evaluation of the study revealed: “In the men’s brains, the images activated the left area of the so-called insula (island cortex), an area of the brain that is responsible for decision-making and subjective feelings, which in turn motivate the willingness to act. In women, the observed brain activation indicates a greater involvement of the neural network associated with identifying emotional stimuli,” says Dr. urbanik.
Overall, the researchers were also able to determine that men are more inclined to act on negative images than women. It is also astonishing that positive images in women are linked to an area of the brain that “stands for what is heard and memories”. In men, the same images linked to a different brain region associated with visual perception and motivation.
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Source: Stern
I am an author and journalist who has worked in the entertainment industry for over a decade. I currently work as a news editor at a major news website, and my focus is on covering the latest trends in entertainment. I also write occasional pieces for other outlets, and have authored two books about the entertainment industry.
