Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #gender-differences, aggregated by home.social.
From 528 games in which 3-person same-sex teams played 24 rounds of an offensive/defensive game, successful offensive strategies were characterized by unpredictability and successful defensive strategies by opponent behavior tracking. Men outperformed women in offensive roles, and women outperformed men in defensive roles. Variation is attributed to differences in risk tolerance, threat sensitivity, and information use.
https://www.cell.com/iscience/fulltext/S2589-0042(26)03270-0?rss=yes
DATE: October 15, 2026 at 04:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG
** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
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TITLE: Your job says little about what you want in a partner, study suggests
URL: https://www.psypost.org/your-job-says-little-about-what-you-want-in-a-partner-study-suggests/
The kind of industry a person works in appears to say very little about what they look for in a romantic partner, according to new research published in Personality and Individual Differences. Across seven countries, a person’s sex and whether they were imagining a short-term or long-term relationship were far more strongly linked to partner preferences than whether they worked in a people-focused, things-focused, or ideas-focused sector.
Vocational interests refer to the broad preferences that guide people toward certain types of work. Psychologists often map these interests along a spectrum that contrasts working with people, like nursing or teaching, with working with objects or systems, like engineering or logistics. A second dimension contrasts working with data and working with ideas, as in technology or finance; the researchers combined these into an “abstract” category. Interest theory treats these career interests as expressions of personality rather than just a taste for specific daily tasks.
If career interests reflect deep parts of personality, they might shape other major life choices, such as picking a partner. Men and women also differ markedly along the people-versus-things dimension: a 2009 meta-analysis found that men generally lean toward working with things and women toward working with people. This divide appears across cultures, as noted in a study covered by PsyPost in 2022 showing a global trend of women preferring people-oriented jobs and men preferring things-oriented occupations.
At the same time, relationship research has established that partner preferences differ by biological sex and relationship goals. The authors of a 1993 paper proposing sexual strategies theory argued, with supporting evidence, that what people prioritize in a partner changes dramatically depending on whether they are looking for a short-term fling or a long-term commitment. The new research brings these two lines of work together to test whether the dispositions that draw people to certain kinds of work also shape their romantic preferences.
The research was led by Peter K. Jonason of Vizja University and Dritjon Gruda, an invited associate professor of organizational behavior at Católica Porto Business School, Universidade Católica Portuguesa, and lecturer at Maynooth University School of Business.
“Vocational psychologists treat whether you are drawn to people or to things as a deep part of personality, more stable over time than the Big Five and very different between men and women,” Gruda told PsyPost. “If that holds, a pediatric nurse and a structural engineer should want different things in a partner, and nobody had checked whether they do.”
The Big Five refers to the five broad traits psychologists commonly use to describe personality, such as extraversion and conscientiousness.
To answer this question, the researchers recruited 1,974 adults (968 men and 982 women) through Prolific from seven countries, including the United States, Germany, and South Africa. The participants completed an online survey about their current employment and their romantic preferences. The researchers grouped participants into three occupational orientations based on their current industry: people-oriented (746 workers), things-oriented (289 workers), and abstract-oriented (710 workers).
To measure mate preferences, the team used a forced-choice task. In each of ten pairings, participants picked which of two traits mattered more from a set of five qualities: physicality (attractiveness and fitness), compassion (warmth and kindness), competence (intelligence and capability), compatibility (shared values and lifestyle), and character (honesty and moral values).
Participants completed this task twice, once imagining a short-term relationship and once imagining a long-term partnership, with the order varied across participants. Because each person made 10 choices per scenario, a trait chosen at an average rate would score 2. Choosing one trait meant passing on another, allowing the researchers to measure the relative priority of each quality on a scale from zero to four.
The results showed that occupational orientation had almost no association with partner preferences. The researchers used equivalence tests, which check whether a difference is small enough to count as negligible rather than simply failing to find one. By this standard, people-oriented and things-oriented workers made practically identical choices for competence and compatibility in both scenarios, and for character in the long-term scenario. Abstract-oriented workers, whom the researchers expected to favor character and compatibility, also chose these traits at rates equivalent to everyone else.
“Your job says very little about what you want in a partner,” Gruda explained. “Among 1,974 adults in seven countries, the sector people worked in had almost no bearing on how often they picked looks, compassion, competence, compatibility, or character. Their sex, and whether they were imagining a fling or a long-term relationship, mattered far more.”
Because things-oriented jobs were held mostly by men (68 percent) and people-oriented jobs mostly by women (63 percent), the researchers analyzed occupation and sex together. Things-oriented workers did choose physical attractiveness somewhat more often than people-oriented workers, but accounting for sex removed about two-thirds of that gap, leaving only a small difference.
The association the authors highlight involved compassion. In the long-term scenario, men in people-oriented jobs chose compassion more often than men in things-oriented jobs (an average of 2.21 versus 1.76 choices out of four), while women chose it at nearly identical rates regardless of sector. Because the researchers tested many outcomes, they applied a stricter threshold to guard against chance findings, and this link did not meet it; it also vanished when things-oriented workers were left out, so the authors treat it as exploratory.
The persistence of the sex difference within the same kinds of jobs stood out to the researchers. “Men in people-focused work like teaching and care, where most colleagues are women, still picked compassion less often than the women next to them,” Gruda noted. “The one occupational link we found, with people-oriented men valuing compassion more in a long-term partner, was small and did not survive correction for multiple tests.”
Sex and relationship context, by contrast, were consistently linked to partner preferences. In both long-term and short-term scenarios, men chose physical attractiveness more often than women did, while women chose compassion and competence more often than men did. For example, in long-term relationships, men chose physicality at an average rate of 1.13 choices compared to 0.60 choices for women, while women chose compassion 2.51 times versus 2.08 times for men. Men and women did not differ in how often they chose compatibility, and differed only slightly on character.
Relationship context reorganized priorities far more heavily than occupation did. When considering a short-term relationship rather than a long-term one, participants selected physicality nearly three times as often, jumping from an average of 0.85 choices to 2.33 choices. To accommodate this focus on looks, choices for compatibility, compassion, and character each fell by roughly half a choice, while competence dipped only slightly.
“Occupation explained extremely little in how often people picked any one trait,” Gruda pointed out. “Relationship context mattered far more.”
The pattern of choices was broadly similar across the seven countries, though some differences emerged, such as fewer compassion choices in Germany and Poland. Country accounted for about five times as much of the variation in compassion choices as occupation did, which the authors take as evidence that the task could detect group differences where they existed.
The authors interpret the weak role of occupation as support for the view that partner preferences are shaped by psychological mechanisms specialized for mating, rather than by the broad dispositions that steer people toward particular kinds of work. Because sex differences in career interests emerge early in life, they suggest sex may shape both the jobs people hold and what they want in a partner, though the study’s single-snapshot design cannot confirm this.
“For me, the main finding is that knowing the industry where somebody works tells us rather little about their partner preferences, once sex is taken into account,” said Toivo Aavik, an associate professor of individual and social psychology at the University of Tartu in Estonia, who has expertise in sexology and mate preferences and was not involved in the research. “Whether the person is thinking about a short-term or a long-term relationship makes a much larger difference. The results concerning sex and relationship context are broadly in line with previous research. The more novel part is the weak association with industry.”
“But here I see the main limitation: the study measured current industry, not vocational interests themselves,” Aavik continued. “These are related, but they are not the same thing. A nurse and a data analyst may both work in healthcare, while having quite different interests and daily tasks. Therefore, I would not yet conclude that vocational interests have little relevance for partner preferences.”
As with all research, there are a few things to keep in mind when interpreting these findings. The study used the participants’ current employment industry as a stand-in for their actual vocational interests. People work where they do for practical reasons such as income, availability, or location, meaning a person’s current field may not reflect their underlying interests.
Gruda acknowledged the limitation while also cautioning against oversimplifying the findings. “We measured the industry people work in, not their vocational interests, and people take jobs for all sorts of reasons,” he said. “That noise would hide a real effect rather than create a false one, yet the same task picked up country differences several times larger than anything occupational. The results also do not mean men want only looks and women only kindness, because for a long-term partner both sexes picked character and compatibility most often.”
Measuring vocational interests directly with specialized assessments, rather than relying on current industry, could provide a more direct test in future investigations. The noise introduced by using industry as a proxy might make subtle associations harder to detect.
“I have reasonable confidence in the narrower result,” Aavik said. “The sample is relatively large, includes seven countries, and the authors used equivalence tests. This is a strength, because finding no statistically significant difference is not sufficient evidence that a difference is small. But still, a large sample cannot fully compensate for an indirect measure of the central concept.”
The forced-choice task also asked participants to choose between broad, abstract traits. While this approach reveals which general qualities people prioritize, real-world dating involves weighing complex combinations of these traits in actual people.
“Participants chose between desirable qualities in hypothetical relationship contexts,” Aavik observed. “Choosing attractiveness more often necessarily leaves fewer choices for other qualities. It does not mean that kindness or honesty is no longer valued. Also, these are average differences between groups; they tell us much less about a particular man or woman.”
The researchers also excluded participants who identified as non-binary or reported a sexual orientation other than heterosexual because those groups were too small to analyze separately. In addition, all seven countries in the sample were Western, industrialized nations, which leaves open the question of whether similar patterns would appear in other cultural settings.
Looking ahead, the researchers hope to build on this line of inquiry. “We would like to measure vocational interests directly instead of inferring them from industry, and to test samples beyond our seven Western countries,” Gruda stated.
Aavik similarly outlined key priorities for future investigations. “What I would most like to see next is a study measuring vocational interests directly and following actual romantic choices,” he told PsyPost. “From a sexology perspective, I would also want sexual compatibility to be assessed explicitly and sufficient representation of people (maybe) with different sexual orientations and/or gender identities.”
The study, “Sex, love, and work: What you do is not whom you want,” was authored by Peter K. Jonason and Dritjon Gruda.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/your-job-says-little-about-what-you-want-in-a-partner-study-suggests/
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DATE: October 7, 2026 at 06:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG
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TITLE: Winning the lottery helps men marry, but briefly raises divorce risk for women
A sudden financial windfall appears to increase the likelihood that men marry and have children, while temporarily raising the risk of divorce for women. These findings, based on nearly 77,000 Swedish lottery players, provide evidence that money can shape family life, possibly in different ways for men and women. The research was published in the Journal of Human Resources.
Nobel Prize-winning economist Gary Becker argued that individuals make family decisions by weighing how much satisfaction they expect from being married, single, or a parent. “Economists have long argued that money shapes decisions about marriage, divorce and having children,” study co-author Anastasia Terskaya, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Barcelona and a research affiliate at the Institute of Economics of Barcelona, told PsyPost. “Gary Becker’s work in the 1960s-70s is the classic example.”
Money may also shape what people look for in a partner. A study covered by PsyPost in 2026 found that women’s preference for wealthier partners decreased when they had more economic power, though that research measured stated preferences in a simulated society rather than real-world behavior.
Testing these theories in the real world is notoriously difficult because people who earn higher incomes usually differ from those who earn less in many other ways, such as their education levels or career ambitions. “The fact that richer men are more likely to be married doesn’t tell us whether money causes marriage,” Terskaya said.
To isolate the pure effect of money, scientists look for sudden, unexpected influxes of cash that are unrelated to a person’s background or behavior. “Lotteries get around this problem because the size of the prize is random,” Terskaya explained. By comparing people who played the exact same lotteries but won different amounts by random chance, researchers can estimate how wealth itself alters life trajectories.
The research, authored by Terskaya alongside David Cesarini of New York University and colleagues, aimed to document the long-term effects of such unearned wealth on family formation. “This question has important policy implications,” she added. “Fertility has been falling across much of the world, and many countries now have birth rates below the replacement rate of roughly 2.1 children per woman, the level needed to keep a population stable over the long run.”
“Many governments worry about the consequences, such as aging populations and pressure on pension and welfare systems,” she continued. “This raises a key question: can money actually persuade people to have more children, and if so, how much would it take?”
To conduct the study, the researchers analyzed data from three major Swedish lotteries: a monthly subscription lottery, a scratch-ticket lottery, and savings accounts that paid lower interest in exchange for automatic entry into lottery draws. They matched the records of 76,859 unique lottery players to government administrative registries that track marriage, divorce, and childbirth over time. The lottery players closely resembled other Swedes of similar age and sex: 33 percent were married, compared with 35 percent of the comparison group, and their incomes were similar, though players were somewhat less likely to have attended college (24 percent versus 30 percent).
The players were grouped tightly based on their exact lottery participation, such as buying the same number of subscription tickets in a given month. “Because we compare players who faced the same odds but won different amounts, our setup is close to a randomized experiment,” Terskaya observed. “That let us ask cleanly: what happens to people’s family lives when they suddenly get richer?”
The study focused on adults aged 18 to 44 at the time of their lottery win, tracking family outcomes at two-year, five-year, and ten-year horizons. Winnings varied widely, with the researchers expressing the effects per 1 million Swedish kronor (SEK), after taxes. This baseline amount, equivalent to about $140,000 in 2010, was more than five times a typical Swede’s annual disposable income.
The findings indicate that wealth boosts marriage prospects, but primarily for men. For unmarried male winners, a 1 million SEK windfall increased the probability of getting married within five years by 4.7 percentage points. Given a baseline marriage rate of about 16 percent for this group, the jump represented a roughly 30 percent increase. This boost appeared to be concentrated among men who had below-median incomes before winning.
For unmarried female winners, the effect on marriage was small and not statistically significant. However, the difference between men’s and women’s responses was not large enough to rule out chance, so the gender gap in marriage is suggestive rather than firmly established.
“Even in Sweden, one of the world’s most gender-equal societies, men’s and women’s responses differ,” Terskaya remarked. “The absence of an effect on marriage for women, combined with the positive effect for men, likely indicates that men and women have different preferences regarding marriage.”
When it came to divorce, the results diverged by gender. Married women who won the lottery experienced a sudden spike in their likelihood of divorce. A 1 million SEK prize nearly doubled their short-term divorce risk, raising it by almost 4 percentage points over a baseline of 4 percent within two years.
“The divorce effect for women is sharp and short-lived,” Terskaya pointed out. “This suggests that women still face financial barriers to leaving a marriage.”
Because this effect faded at the ten-year horizon, the researchers suggest the wealth likely accelerated divorces that were already under consideration. The short-term spike was also concentrated among women who had below-median incomes before winning. The researchers interpret this as a sign that the lottery provided a sudden rush of financial independence, giving women who were previously financially vulnerable the resources needed to leave their marriages.
Terskaya warned against a common misreading. “‘Money makes women leave their husbands.’ Not quite,” she said. “The effect fades over time, so wealth mostly changes when already-troubled marriages end, not whether they end.”
For married men, the lottery winnings had the opposite effect: wealth appeared to reduce their risk of divorce. However, this was the least reliable result in the study, as discussed below.
The divorce findings are in line with research covered by PsyPost in 2026, which found that among opposite-sex couples in Finland, higher income for the secondary earner, usually the wife, was linked to greater divorce risk, while higher income for the primary earner was linked to more stable marriages. That study relied on observational income data rather than sudden windfalls.
The researchers also found that children function as what economists call a normal good, meaning people tend to have more of them when their financial resources increase. Ten years after a lottery win, male winners had an average of 0.056 more children per 1 million SEK won, amounting to a 14 percent increase in fertility. The researchers roughly estimate that 20 to 40 percent of men’s fertility increase traces to higher marriage rates and fewer divorces. “Part of this happens because wealth helps them marry and stay married,” Terskaya added.
Women’s fertility saw a slight positive bump, but the results were not statistically significant. As with marriage, the researchers could not statistically confirm that men and women responded differently. The researchers noted that the gender gap in fertility was strongest among winners over 35. The authors suggest this may reflect women’s age-related decline in fertility, which would point to differing constraints rather than differing preferences.
“In absolute terms, the effects are modest, even though some look large in percentage terms,” Terskaya said. “One way to see it: in the full sample, each 1 million SEK raises the number of children born over ten years by about 0.033. That works out to roughly 30 million SEK (around $4 million) in windfall wealth per additional child.”
When the researchers combined their data with earlier lottery studies, they estimated that every $100,000 in windfall wealth increases the odds that a single person marries in the next five years by roughly 1.2 percentage points. “So money clearly matters, but large cash transfers would be an expensive way to change marriage or birth rates,” Terskaya said.
“Large, unexpected wealth shocks affected family outcomes differently by gender,” said Jeong Jin Yu, a professor at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University in China who was not involved in the study. “They increased men’s marriage and fertility, while women experienced a short-term increase in divorce risk.”
“The findings confirm that men’s economic resources are associated with marriage and family formation,” he added. “They also extend previous research by using lottery winnings as a plausibly random wealth shock rather than relying only on correlations.”
To explain the gender differences in divorce, the authors point out that wealth increases bargaining power, or how much say each spouse has in household decisions. In Sweden, the legal default is an equal split in a divorce, but registry data suggests the wealthier spouse often walks away with a much larger share in practice. The authors suggest that if women carry a heavier domestic workload or have less autonomy in a marriage, sudden financial independence might make single life more appealing, while men might find that wealth enhances their married life.
“Confidence is relatively high in the main findings because the study uses a large administrative dataset and a lottery-based research design,” Yu told PsyPost. “However, confidence is relatively lower regarding the explanations for the gender differences, since the data do not directly measure marital satisfaction, relationship quality, or decision-making power within relationships.”
As with all research, there are a few things to keep in mind. The study is based entirely in Sweden, a country with a strong social welfare system, low legal barriers to divorce, and relatively high social acceptance of non-traditional family structures.
“Context matters,” Terskaya emphasized. “We expect the results to carry over best to other high-income welfare states, especially the Nordic countries, and much less to developing countries.” The way wealth influences marriage and fertility might look different in nations with more traditional gender norms or weaker social safety nets.
Yu cautioned against reading too much into the results. “Readers should not conclude that money automatically causes marriage, children, or divorce,” he said. “The study reports average effects, not outcomes that apply to every individual. The findings may also reflect Sweden’s particular legal, economic, and cultural context.”
There is also some uncertainty regarding the exact mechanisms behind the male marriage boost. The researchers note that it is difficult to determine if men are marrying more because they have reached a basic threshold of absolute financial security, or if their relative rank among other men has simply improved. If relative rank dictates marriage prospects, a general increase in wealth across an entire society would not necessarily boost overall marriage rates.
“Making one man richer is not the same as making everyone richer,” Terskaya highlighted. “If wealthier men marry more partly because they become more attractive relative to other men, a rise in everyone’s income would raise marriage and fertility less than our estimates suggest. Our numbers may therefore be an upper bound for such general increases. This is important to keep in mind if a government wants to use our estimates to justify a universal basic income, which raises everyone’s income.”
Finally, the finding that wealth reduces divorce risk for men was sensitive to how the researchers defined their sample. When they expanded the analysis to include older adults up to age 64, the stabilizing effect on male marriages became much smaller and less reliable, suggesting the original result may be fragile.
“The finding that men’s marriages become more stable is the least robust result,” Terskaya acknowledged. “It weakens or disappears under other age ranges, definitions and statistical tests, so we put less weight on it.”
“The paper leaves several open questions,” Terskaya told PsyPost. She would like to learn how couples’ property is split in practice when marriages end, and whether the same patterns would emerge in nations with different marriage laws and cultural expectations about family.
“Future research should examine relationship quality, relationship duration, partner characteristics, financial decision-making, and how wealth affects each partner’s independence and decision-making power,” Yu added. “It would also be useful to test whether similar patterns appear with other types of wealth and in different countries.”
The study, “Fortunate Families? The Effects of Wealth on Marriage and Fertility,” was authored by David Cesarini, Erik Lindqvist, Robert Östling, and Anastasia Terskaya.
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DATE: October 6, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG
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TITLE: Narcissism and psychopathy are closely linked in women serving prison sentences
URL: https://www.psypost.org/how-manipulative-strategies-connect-narcissism-and-psychopathy-behind-bars/
A recent study of incarcerated individuals reveals that grandiose, narcissistic personality traits are closely linked to psychopathic tendencies, partially because people with these traits use manipulative strategies to navigate prison environments. This direct relationship between narcissism and psychopathy is especially pronounced in incarcerated women. The research was published in Psychology, Crime & Law.
The Dark Triad is a psychological framework that groups together three aggressive and self-centered personality traits. These include narcissism, which involves an inflated sense of self-importance; Machiavellianism, characterized by a manipulative and cynical approach to others; and psychopathy, marked by emotional coldness, moral disengagement, and a lack of empathy. In everyday settings, psychologists often view these three traits as related but distinct behavioral patterns.
In a restrictive environment like a prison, these personality features can blend together into active survival tactics. Correctional facilities force constant competition for limited resources and informal privileges. Because overt aggression can attract swift formal or informal sanctions, inmates often rely on covert manipulation to maintain their social standing.
Health researcher Gizell Green of the Max Stern Yezreel Valley College in Israel, along with crisis management and security scholars Alena Lochmannová and Ondřej Kolář of the Police Academy of the Czech Republic, wanted to understand how these traits operate under the constraints of incarceration. The researchers proposed that an innate sense of narcissistic entitlement might not automatically lead to psychopathic behavior. Instead, they hypothesized that an intermediate step of calculated manipulation connects the two. They also wanted to investigate whether this behavioral pathway looked different between men and women in custody.
To test these ideas, the researchers surveyed 344 adults serving time in six different Czech prisons. The group included 205 women and 139 men. Participants filled out a demographic questionnaire and a brief psychological assessment known as the Dirty Dozen. This assessment uses a twelve-item rating scale to measure the presence of the three Dark Triad traits.
To encourage honest answers about antisocial behavior, the researchers used a locked collection box so that prison staff could not match responses to specific individuals. The team then used statistical modeling to map the relationships among the three personality traits. Their models accounted for background factors like age, marital status, and the number of children each participant had, as these demographic details can influence criminal trajectories and baseline personality expressions.
The results showed strong associations among all three dark personality traits in the prison sample. Narcissism was robustly linked to elevated levels of Machiavellian tendencies. Both narcissism and Machiavellianism also directly predicted higher levels of psychopathy.
When analyzing the pathways between these traits, the researchers found that Machiavellianism acts as a psychological bridge. Narcissistic desires for dominance and admiration translate into psychopathic callousness partly through the use of calculating and manipulative strategies. In the context of a prison, where informal hierarchies dictate social standing, manipulation functions as a practical tool to secure resources without exposing personal vulnerability. This repeated strategic behavior can foster the emotional detachment characteristic of psychopathy.
The researchers also looked at whether gender changed these behavioral pathways. Their statistical model did not allow the indirect pathway linking narcissism to psychopathy through manipulation to vary by gender, so it was treated as the same for men and women rather than tested for differences. The direct link between narcissism and psychopathy, however, varied measurably depending on gender. For incarcerated women, the direct association between narcissistic traits and psychopathic traits was almost twice as strong as it was for incarcerated men.
In women’s prisons, a grandiose sense of entitlement is more likely to be paired with severe interpersonal hostility and emotional coldness. Female offenders who display pronounced narcissistic behavior represent a more extreme deviation from traditional gender expectations. The researchers suggest this deviation often reflects a more deeply rooted personality pathology that closely aligns with psychopathy.
These findings offer practical guidance for correctional staff managing risk and rehabilitation. Assessment protocols should avoid treating high scores on Dark Triad tests as a single, undifferentiated warning sign. Recognizing how a person’s pursuit of status translates into exploitative tactics can help staff identify inmates who might resort to coercive behavior. Rehabilitation programs can then focus on addressing these specific manipulative strategies rather than just enforcing general rule compliance.
Because the researchers collected all their data at a single point in time, the study cannot establish a definitive sequence of cause and effect. It remains possible that the prison environment first encourages manipulative behavior, which then brings out dormant narcissistic or psychopathic tendencies. The study also lacked a comparison group of people living outside the prison system. Without this baseline, it is impossible to know if this specific blending of personality traits is unique to the custodial environment.
The psychological survey used in the study is brief and might not capture the full range of behaviors associated with psychopathy. Participants in a prison setting might also adjust their answers to protect their reputations, even with anonymous collection methods. Expanding on these findings will require incorporating longer psychological evaluations and reviewing official behavioral records. Observing how these traits manifest in different international justice systems could help clarify how specific prison cultures shape antagonistic behavior.
The study, “The dark path to psychopathy, Machiavellianism as a mediator of the narcissism–psychopathy link among incarcerated men and women: a moderated mediation analysis,” was authored by Gizell Green, Alena Lochmannová, and Ondřej Kolář.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/how-manipulative-strategies-connect-narcissism-and-psychopathy-behind-bars/
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DATE: October 5, 2026 at 08:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG
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TITLE: Two decades of U.S. data challenge an evolutionary explanation for the gender-equality paradox
Two studies that tracked Americans for two decades or more found that as the United States grew wealthier and more gender-equal, psychological differences between men and women did not grow, and in a few cases they shrank. The findings, published in Social Psychology and Psychological Reports, provide evidence against a popular evolutionary explanation for why such differences appear larger in richer, more egalitarian countries.
The research addresses a phenomenon known as the gender-equality paradox. This concept refers to the observation that differences between men and women in personality, academic strengths, and mental health often appear larger in countries with higher levels of gender equality and economic prosperity.
A study covered by PsyPost in 2024 found that higher living conditions were associated with larger sex differences in personality and depression across different countries, though differences in math, sexual behavior, and partner preferences were smaller. Similar patterns have been observed in education, with another 2024 study showing that differences in girls’ and boys’ relative academic strengths, with girls relatively stronger in reading and boys in math and science, are consistently larger in wealthier, more gender-equal nations.
To explain this paradox, many evolutionary psychologists point to the resource hypothesis, sometimes called the free expression hypothesis. This framework proposes that humans possess innate, sex-specific tendencies rooted in early human evolution, when, according to this view, men and women faced different pressures that shaped different psychological traits.
On this account, when a society meets its citizens’ basic material needs and relaxes strict social rules, individuals are finally free to express their true, biologically driven gender differences. Under this theory, a highly developed country removes the struggle for basic survival, allowing men and women to naturally drift toward distinct, gendered interests and emotional patterns.
“The study was motivated by a long-standing debate about the so-called gender-equality paradox,” Gabriele Prati, an associate professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Bologna and the author of both studies, told PsyPost.
“The problem is that most of the evidence supporting this explanation comes from comparisons between different countries at a single point in time,” he explained. “Countries differ in many other respects—history, culture, institutions, religion, economic structure, and social norms—so a correlation between gender equality and sex differences does not necessarily tell us what happens when equality or economic resources actually increase.”
A more direct test is to follow what happens within a single society as it changes. Prati did this in two longitudinal studies, which follow the same people over many years, tracking Americans across a period of rising wealth and gender equality.
The first study, published in Social Psychology, analyzed data from the Midlife in the United States project, which included a nationally representative sample of 7,108 adults. At the start of the study, participants averaged 46 years old, and 52 percent were women. Prati examined three waves of data collected between the mid-1990s and 2014. During this nearly twenty-year span, the United States experienced documented increases in its gross domestic product, a standard measure of economic prosperity, as well as an overall increase in gender equality.
Participants completed surveys assessing their personality traits, including extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, openness, and neuroticism. The surveys also measured altruism, trust, negative emotions, and clinical depression. At the start, women scored higher than men on most of these measures, including negative emotions, agreeableness, and neuroticism, while men scored slightly higher on openness. The research aimed to determine whether the psychological gaps between men and women widened as the societal conditions improved, exactly as the resource hypothesis would predict.
The findings did not support the evolutionary resource hypothesis. The gap between men and women in altruism, trust, negative emotions, and all major personality traits remained unchanged over the nearly twenty-year span. For depression, the gender gap actually shrank. Women were still more likely than men to meet the criteria for depression in 2014, but the gap narrowed because women’s odds of depression fell by about 38 percent while men’s did not change.
Prati also tested the hypothesis at the individual level by looking at changes in household income adjusted for household size. Rising income was not followed by growing differences between men and women. The two associations that did emerge ran opposite to the theory’s predictions: higher income was followed by slightly lower conscientiousness among women and, at the edge of statistical significance, a higher likelihood of depression among men.
“The main takeaway is that greater prosperity and gender equality did not make men and women progressively more psychologically different in the way predicted by the resource hypothesis,” Prati said.
“An important broader lesson is that a pattern observed when comparing countries is not necessarily evidence of the mechanism producing that pattern,” he noted. “Following people and societies over time provides a more direct test, and in this study that test did not support the resource hypothesis in its current form.”
To test the hypothesis in a different developmental stage, Prati conducted a second study, published in Psychological Reports, focusing on adolescents and young adults. This research used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, which tracked a nationally representative sample of 6,504 Americans from 1994 to 2018. Over five survey waves, participants grew from middle and high school students into adults in their late thirties. This dataset allowed Prati to examine different outcomes in younger people: math and science grades, scores on a picture vocabulary test, self-reported willingness to take risks, self-esteem, and depressive symptoms.
Once again, the results did not support the predictions of the evolutionary framework. Gender differences in math and science grades did not change between the mid-1990s and the end of high school, differences in vocabulary scores did not change between 1994–95 and 2001–02, and differences in willingness to take risks did not change between 1996 and 2018.
Just as in the adult study, the gender differences in depressive symptoms decreased over time. The gap in depressive symptoms, on a scale from 0 to 3, shrank from 0.14 points in 1994–95 to 0.10 points in 2008–09, and the self-esteem gap, in which boys typically score higher, shrank from 0.16 to 0.05 points on a five-point scale by 2001–02. Prati describes these changes as very small to small, but they ran opposite to the theory’s prediction.
As with all research, there are some caveats to consider. Both studies rely on data from a single country, and tracking these changes in countries with different cultural histories or economic structures might yield different patterns.
In addition, because the same people were aging while society changed, the studies cannot fully separate the effects of societal change from ordinary development. The self-esteem gap, for example, tends to narrow as teenagers become adults.
Another detail to keep in mind is the way certain traits were measured. Some, such as risk-taking and trust, were assessed using a single survey question, which might not capture their full complexity. The datasets also lacked some of the measures most central to the theory, such as interest in working with things versus people, so future studies could test whether those show different patterns.
It is also possible that two decades is not long enough to observe deep cultural shifts in how gender differences are expressed. However, Prati notes that the hypothesis does not specify how long these effects should take to emerge, and that there is no clear reason to expect individual income gains to take decades to have an effect.
“We should be cautious about concluding that giving people more economic resources and greater gender equality naturally reveals or amplifies innate psychological differences between women and men,” Prati added. “Differences between women and men are likely shaped by a much more complex combination of social, cultural, environmental, and possibly biological influences.”
The study, “No Evidence for the Evolutionary Resource Hypothesis as an Explanation of the Gender-Equality Paradox: A Three-Wave Longitudinal Analysis of Sex Differences in the United States,” was authored by Gabriele Prati. The study, “The Gender-Equality Paradox: A Longitudinal Test of the Free Expression or Resource Hypothesis Among Adolescents,” was also authored by Gabriele Prati.
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The effect of physiological arousal on interpersonal attraction was tested using high- and low-arousal virtual reality games (just 3 minutes of exposure) followed by evaluation of dating profiles. Profile ratings were consistently more postitive in the high-, relative to low-, arousal conditions. Men mis-attributed arousal as attraction significantly more than women.
Preprint: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=7471220
DATE: September 25, 2026 at 06:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG
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TITLE: Why sex differences in throwing cannot be explained by socialization alone
URL: https://www.psypost.org/why-sex-differences-in-throwing-cannot-be-explained-by-socialization-alone/
Sex differences in overhand throwing cannot be explained by socialization alone, according to a commentary published in Evolutionary Psychological Science that argues biological predispositions and experience work together across development.
Scientists generally reject a simple choice between nature and nurture. Research in evolutionary biology, behavioral genetics, and psychology instead treats behavior as the product of ongoing interactions among genes, hormones, development, learning, and the social environment. Nevertheless, explanations attributing differences between women and men entirely to socialization remain influential in some areas of sex and gender research.
Robert O. Deaner and Michael P. Lombardo examine this tension through a debate about the pronounced sex difference in overhand throwing. This difference is exceptionally large—reaching roughly two standard deviations or more by adulthood, a gap comparable in magnitude to the adult sex difference in height. Their commentary responds to developmental biologist Anne Fausto-Sterling’s critique of their earlier proposal that throwing ability partly reflects adaptations shaped by stronger ancestral selection on males.
Fausto-Sterling argues that differences in children’s early social experiences and opportunities for ball play can account for the development of the throwing gap. Deaner and Lombardo contend that this explanation overlooks relevant evolutionary, anatomical, hormonal, cross-cultural, and performance evidence.
The authors adopt an interactionist framework in which evolved predispositions and environmental influences are complementary rather than competing explanations. Their central hypothesis is that ancestral males experienced stronger selection for forceful and accurate overhand throwing, particularly because males were more frequently involved in violent conflict and warfare.
Hunting and confrontational scavenging (stealing kills from other predators) may have provided additional selection pressures. Over many generations, these recurring demands could have favored anatomical, physiological, and behavioral traits that support throwing performance.
These evolved differences would not need to be fully formed at birth. Like walking or language, throwing develops through the interaction of biological capacities with experience, practice, and social input. Children may receive different levels of encouragement to play with balls, while preexisting differences in interests or physical capacities may also influence the activities they seek out and the responses they receive from caregivers. Socialization can therefore cultivate or amplify an evolved predisposition without having created it entirely.
The authors first dispute the claim that their evolutionary account depends principally on the traditional image of “Man the Hunter.” They say their primary proposed selection pressure is conflict between ancestral groups, especially warfare, with hunting serving as a complementary influence. They also argue that the anthropological evidence continues to show a substantial sexual division of hunting labor. Although women hunt in some societies, quantitative data indicate that men generally hunt more often, pursue larger animals, and obtain considerably more meat. In the authors’ view, such patterns make it plausible that males faced stronger selection for throwing-related abilities.
The authors next argue that the evidence extends well beyond childhood throwing studies. They point to an unusually large performance difference between male and female javelin throwers; differences in throwing accuracy and targeting; research connecting prenatal androgen exposure (levels of male sex hormones experienced in the womb) with male-typical propulsive behavior; and anatomical differences in the shoulder and arm that generally favor male throwing performance.
Large differences have also been observed among children in societies where both sexes receive substantial throwing opportunities or where neither receives much practice, while training improves girls’ performance without consistently eliminating the gap.
Finally, Deaner and Lombardo maintain that Fausto-Sterling’s observations of ten infants (five boys and five girls) cannot establish that maternal interaction caused the children’s differing engagement with balls, particularly because the study did not examine the mature, forceful overhand throw addressed by their hypothesis. More broadly, they argue that presenting developmental experience as an alternative to evolution misunderstand evolutionary theory: adaptations must emerge through developmental processes, and evidence that social experience contributes to a trait does not demonstrate that experience fully accounts for it.
The authors acknowledge that some lines of evidence supporting their account, including evidence concerning targeting, come from only one or a few studies. They also note that available quantitative hunting data may not represent all foraging societies.
By applying an interactionist framework to overhand throwing, the commentary argues that a complete explanation of behavioral sex differences must examine how biological predispositions and social experience jointly shape development.
The paper, “Sex Differences in Overhand Throwing are Completely Due to Socialization: A Blank Slate ‘Hypothesis’ Unconstrained by Evidence,” was authored by Robert O. Deaner and Michael P. Lombardo.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/why-sex-differences-in-throwing-cannot-be-explained-by-socialization-alone/
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A meta-analysis of gender differences in emotional intelligence incorporating 1,279 studies over 30 years distinguishes between recognizing and regulating emotions in self and others, and between competence and confidence. Broadly, women are better at recognizing emotions, and men better at regulating them; women are more competent and men more confident.
Summary: https://phys.org/news/2026-09-assumption-women-emotional-intelligence-men.html
Original paper (not open access): https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Femo0001733
DATE: September 23, 2026 at 04:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG
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TITLE: New study highlights key differences in how relationship dynamics relate to sexual desire in men and women
The assumption that men’s interest in sex is purely physical and always switched on is a common cultural stereotype, but recent evidence indicates that men’s sexual desire is actually quite complex. A new study published in Psychology & Sexuality suggests that when men feel a sense of fairness and emotional satisfaction in their intimate relationships, their interest in solitary sexual activities tends to decrease, even though their desire for sex with a partner remains unaffected. The findings point toward a more nuanced understanding of how modern relationship dynamics influence male sexuality.
Historically, the scientific and medical communities have treated male sexuality as a straightforward biological mechanism. For example, a 2019 review noted that researchers have traditionally viewed men’s sexual desire as a simple, mostly physical reflex, focusing heavily on bodily functions like erectile response or testosterone levels. This approach leaves little room for understanding how a man’s emotions, relationship quality, or social environment might shape his interest in sex.
“Essentially, we felt there was a need to explore male desire as there is an assumption that men ‘must always’ want to have sex,” Simone Buzwell, a senior lecturer in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Swinburne University of Technology, told PsyPost. “However, we know from our work with male clients this is not the case, and many men struggle with lower levels of desire than they, or their partners, are happy with. We thought it was time to destigmatize something (low male desire) that many men struggle with.”
To address similar gaps in understanding women’s sexuality, a 2018 framework proposed that sexual desire is deeply tied to emotional and relational experiences rather than just biology. This relational perspective splits sexual desire into two distinct categories. The first is dyadic desire, which is the motivation to engage in sexual acts with a partner. The second is solitary desire, which represents the interest in sexual behavior by oneself, such as masturbation.
Applying this two-part definition to relationships yields interesting patterns. For instance, a study covered by PsyPost in 2022 showed that women in fairer relationships reported higher relationship satisfaction, which in turn predicted a stronger desire for sex with their partners. Relationship fairness, or balance, refers to how equally couples share power, household chores, and emotional support.
The current research aimed to see if these same relational dynamics apply to men. “We were motivated to do this study as I had been exploring female sexual desire and I wanted to find out if factors that impacted female sexual desire also impacted men,” Buzwell explained. “While understanding the factors themselves are helpful for knowing what to target for educational strategies and therapy, if the factors differed between man and women, this could impact sexual communication and relationship harmony.”
To investigate this, the researchers collected data from an online survey of 118 cisgender men living in Australia. The participants ranged in age from 18 to 39, with an average age of 28. Most of the men identified as heterosexual, were currently in a relationship, and did not have children.
The survey asked participants to report their levels of both dyadic and solitary sexual desire over the past month. For dyadic desire, this included rating the frequency of sexual thoughts involving a partner. For solitary desire, the men rated the strength of their desire to engage in sexual behavior by themselves.
The men also answered questions about how power and responsibilities were divided in their relationships, allowing the researchers to categorize them into two groups. Out of the 118 men, 101 reported an equal balance of power, while 17 reported an unequal balance where either they or their partner held more control. The participants then completed a measure of relationship satisfaction, rating things like emotional intimacy and communication.
Finally, the participants filled out a questionnaire assessing their adherence to traditional masculinity norms. This measured how strongly they agreed with social expectations that men should be self-reliant, restrict their emotions, possess mechanical skills, and prioritize sexual dominance.
When the researchers analyzed the data, they found that relationship fairness did not appear to impact a man’s desire for partnered sex. There was no direct or indirect link between relationship balance, relationship satisfaction, and dyadic sexual desire. This is a distinct departure from previous findings in women, where relationship fairness boosted partnered desire.
“What people can take away from the study is relationship factors do not impact on men’s sexual desire in the same way as female sexual desire,” Buzwell said. “This suggests, for men, their dyadic desire may rely more on physiological needs rather than emotional ones. Generally for men, the state of the relationship did not change how sexy they found their partner.”
Instead, the primary factor associated with dyadic desire in this sample was masculinity. Men who scored higher on traditional masculine beliefs reported a stronger desire for sex with a partner. The researchers suggest that social scripts surrounding masculinity might encourage men to focus outward on sexual initiation and partner-seeking behaviors as a way to fulfill expected gender roles.
“We also found that men in more unequal relationships (where one partner had more relationship power than the other) reported higher masculinity,” Buzwell pointed out. “Further, high masculinity led to greater dyadic desire, i.e. desire for sex with a partner, but had no impact on solo desire. So feeling masculine only seems ‘sexy’ when with another and is wasted when alone.”
However, relationship dynamics did play a role in men’s solitary desire. The men who reported equal relationship balance also reported much higher relationship satisfaction. This increased satisfaction, in turn, predicted lower levels of solitary sexual desire. In other words, when men felt happy and equal in their partnerships, their interest in solitary sexual activities decreased.
“When men were satisfied with their relationship and felt their relationship was equitable, their solo desire decreased, so they felt less need to self-satisfy,” Buzwell explained. “This also implies that when men are unhappy in their relationship they turn their focus inwards onto their own sexual needs, rather than try to find sexual satisfaction with their partner.”
The study also highlighted a few other interesting patterns. Heterosexual men reported higher dyadic desire, while non-heterosexual men reported higher solitary desire. Additionally, having children was linked to higher relationship satisfaction for the men in the sample, and it did not negatively impact their sexual desire. This contrasts with past research indicating that childcare responsibilities often decrease relationship satisfaction and sexual desire for women, who historically shoulder a heavier portion of caregiving duties.
The researchers suspect social expectations play a role in these differences. “It seems that men demonstrating sexual interest in a presumably female other can be used to ‘prove’ their heterosexuality, while too much interest in self-gratification may be viewed as indicating homosexual preferences,” Buzwell noted. “We also found it interesting that, unlike our female sample, having children had no impact on men’s desire, or relationship satisfaction, perhaps indicating men’s lower involvement in child rearing.”
As with all research, there are a few things to keep in mind. The study relied on a relatively small convenience sample of mostly educated men, and a large majority of them reported being in equal relationships. This small number of men in unequal relationships makes it difficult to draw broad conclusions about how severe power imbalances affect sexual desire.
The use of self-report questionnaires also introduces the possibility of social desirability bias. Some participants might have downplayed their traditional masculine beliefs or overstated their relationship equality because those are socially favored traits. Others might have exaggerated their desire for partnered sex to align with cultural expectations of what it means to be a man.
The survey also captured data at a single point in time, meaning the researchers cannot assume that relationship satisfaction directly causes a drop in solitary desire. It is possible that the association works in the opposite direction, or that other unmeasured factors are influencing both variables. The study also did not account for biological or medical factors that can shape male sexual functioning.
Future studies could build on these findings by recruiting larger, more diverse groups of men, including a wider range of sexual orientations and relationship types. Getting input from both members of a couple could also provide a more accurate picture of relationship balance than relying on one partner’s perspective.
“In terms of the practical significance of the effects, the findings are a reminder that what impacts male and female sexual desire differ,” Buzwell said. “What may be good for the goose may not be good for the gander! I also think the findings show male desire is more complex than people may expect and that men’s desire for another is impacted by non-physical factors, especially their feelings of masculinity.”
“I thought the men’s results would be different to what we found with women, but I thought there may have been more similarities in what we found,” she reflected. “Our long-term goals in this area is to assist people to achieve the level of sexual desire they want given we know this contributes to both personal and relationship well-being. Satisfied people are happier people!”
The study, “Sharing the love: Examining the impact of masculinity, relationship balance, and relationship satisfaction on men’s sexual desire,” was authored by Isobel K. Wilson, Eva Johansen, and Simone Buzwell.
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DATE: September 20, 2026 at 08:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG
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TITLE: High testosterone is linked to “loss chasing” behavior after setbacks
URL: https://www.psypost.org/high-testosterone-is-linked-to-loss-chasing-behavior-after-setbacks/
A recent study suggests that while a person’s baseline testosterone levels do not directly determine how many risks they take, the hormone may influence how their body processes the outcomes of past decisions. By measuring sweat on the skin during a gambling game, scientists found evidence that testosterone alters how men respond to the bodily sensations that follow wins and losses. These findings were published in Psychoneuroendocrinology.
To understand how people navigate uncertainty, scientists often rely on a computer program called the Iowa Gambling Task. In this game, players choose cards from four decks to win virtual money. Two decks offer large payouts but come with massive penalties, making them risky and unprofitable in the long run. The other two decks offer smaller payouts but smaller penalties, making them the safer, winning strategy. Players do not know these rules in advance and must learn them through trial and error.
Past research has shown that our bodies often figure out the rules of the game before our conscious minds do. For example, a 1997 study showed that people generate unconscious bodily warning signals, measured through subtle increases in skin sweat, just before reaching for a risky deck. This phenomenon is known as the Somatic Marker Hypothesis, which proposes that these physical “gut feelings” help guide our decision-making.
Scientists later started exploring what biological factors might alter these gut feelings. A 2011 study indicated that people with higher levels of testosterone made riskier choices on the Iowa Gambling Task, suggesting the hormone might play a role. However, a 2026 meta-analysis covered by PsyPost evaluated dozens of previous experiments and found that testosterone has no reliable direct link to general risk-taking.
Because broad evidence for a direct link between testosterone and risky behavior remained weak, researchers began asking a different question. They wondered if the hormone instead works behind the scenes by altering how the body processes rewards, punishments, and those subtle gut feelings.
“This study is part of a larger research project investigating the relationship between hormones and decision-making,” study author Félix Duplessis-Marcotte, a doctoral candidate in neuropsychology at the Université du Québec à Montréal, told PsyPost. “The main study was recently published in Scientific Reports on the association between stress-induced cortisol (a hormone involved in the stress response) and decision-making.” Duplessis-Marcotte conducted the study alongside Marie-France Marin.
“As for testosterone, recent meta-analyses suggest that testosterone is not simply associated with people being more or less risk-taking overall,” he added. “That raised a different question: rather than asking whether testosterone relates to decision-making, what if it influences how people make decisions?”
To investigate this, the scientists recruited 55 young adults, consisting of 27 women and 28 men. At the start of the laboratory session, the participants provided saliva samples so the research team could measure their baseline testosterone levels. Each participant was then asked to complete 100 rounds of the Iowa Gambling Task on a computer.
As the participants played the game, the researchers continuously measured their electrodermal activity. This involves placing sensors on the hand to detect minute changes in sweat gland activity, which serves as an indicator of physiological arousal. The scientists separated these physical responses into two categories. Anticipatory responses were recorded in the seconds just before a participant selected a card, while feedback responses were recorded in the seconds immediately after the participant saw whether they won or lost money.
When analyzing the results, the scientists found that baseline testosterone levels were not associated with general risk-taking. Participants with high testosterone did not simply pick from the risky decks more often than those with low testosterone. This aligns with recent research suggesting the hormone does not act as a simple volume dial for risky behavior.
The research team also looked at the anticipatory sweat responses. In men, these physical warning signals grew stronger before picking from a risky deck as the game progressed, and these signals were associated with their upcoming choices. Women in the study tended to show fewer differences in physical arousal before safe versus risky choices, and they maintained a steady level of risk-taking throughout the game. However, a person’s testosterone level did not alter these anticipatory gut feelings or change how those feelings related to their choices.
Instead, the researchers found that testosterone was associated with how participants physically reacted to the outcomes of their decisions. When men saw the results of their card draws, their subsequent choices were influenced by a combination of their testosterone levels and their bodily responses to that feedback. For men with lower testosterone levels, a stronger physical reaction to an outcome was followed by a decrease in risk-taking on the next turn.
For men with higher testosterone levels, the opposite pattern emerged. A stronger physical reaction to a win or loss was followed by an increase in risk-taking on the subsequent draw. The hormone appeared to alter the motivational meaning of their physical arousal, turning a bodily signal that usually promotes caution into one that encourages risk. This specific relationship between testosterone, feedback-related sweat responses, and subsequent choices was not observed in the women studied.
“The main takeaway is that testosterone may not make people generally more risk-taking,” Duplessis-Marcotte said. “More broadly, these findings add to growing evidence that testosterone’s role in human behavior is more nuanced than the popular stereotype that it simply increases risk-taking.”
“Rather than directly driving risky behavior, testosterone may be associated with some of the affective and physiological processes through which people learn from previous experiences when making decisions,” he explained.
Beyond those moment-to-moment physical reactions, the scientists also noticed a broader behavioral trend related to testosterone following financial losses. Across both men and women, those with lower testosterone levels tended to switch to a safer deck after losing money. Those with higher testosterone levels showed persistent risk-taking after losses, a pattern that resembles “loss chasing” in gambling. They seemed less sensitive to the negative consequences of their choices.
The findings are in line with research covered by PsyPost in 2023, which found that testosterone does not drive general risk-taking but instead influences how individuals respond to decision feedback. However, that previous study administered artificial doses of testosterone to men experiencing severe energy deficits, whereas the new research measured natural hormone levels in both men and women.
Additionally, a 2025 study covered by PsyPost similarly found no overall link between testosterone and risk-taking, though it primarily evaluated the effects of an acute hormone dose on financial lottery choices in men rather than natural levels during a card game.
As with all research, there are a few things to keep in mind. “Our findings should be viewed as evidence of a subtle association rather than a large behavioral effect,” Duplessis-Marcotte noted. “It is important to note that this study is correlational in nature: no variables were experimentally manipulated, and all results can therefore not be interpreted in causal terms.”
“Also, we investigated decision-making with a single gambling task in a controlled lab-based setting,” he continued. “It is possible, and likely, that our results may be different if it was conducted in a social context (e.g., making decisions while being watched by someone), and using a different decision-making task.” Additionally, the measurements of sweat on the skin only indicate the intensity of a person’s physical arousal, not whether the emotion they felt was positive or negative. Future studies might use brain wave recordings to better understand the specific emotions tied to these choices.
Another detail to note is that the sample size was relatively small when the data was divided into groups based on both sex and hormone levels. The researchers also only measured baseline testosterone at the start of the study.
“I think the field should move beyond treating testosterone as a fixed trait measured once in the laboratory and instead examine its dynamic relationship with behavior,” Duplessis-Marcotte said. “Testosterone changes in response to social interactions, competition, and other contextual factors, so its association with decision-making may be strongest when we measure those real-time fluctuations.”
“Future studies combining repeated hormone measurements with physiological signals and more ecologically valid decision-making tasks could help clarify when and how testosterone influences the decision process,” he added.
The study, “Testosterone is associated with affective feedback processing in ambiguous decision-making,” was authored by Félix Duplessis-Marcotte, Valentin Magnon, and Marie-France Marin.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/high-testosterone-is-linked-to-loss-chasing-behavior-after-setbacks/
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DATE: September 16, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG
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TITLE: Higher emotional intelligence is tied to vigorous exercise in women
URL: https://www.psypost.org/higher-emotional-intelligence-is-tied-to-vigorous-exercise-in-women/
A large new study reveals that emotional intelligence is linked to distinct physical activity habits in women, but not in men. Women with higher emotional intelligence scores tended to engage in more vigorous exercise and spend less time sitting, while these associations were absent among male participants. The research was published in the journal Personality and Individual Differences.
Emotional intelligence refers to a person’s ability to perceive, regulate, and effectively use their own emotions as well as the emotions of others. High emotional intelligence is often associated with better psychological well-being, social functioning, and resilience to stress. Emerging evidence suggests that these emotional skills are also tied to biological aging and daily habits, including how people manage their health.
Regular physical activity is widely recognized as a foundation for both mental and physical health across the human lifespan. Health behaviors like exercise, sleep, and sedentary routines influence emotional regulation through shared biological pathways in the brain and the endocrine system. Specifically, the autonomic nervous system and regions of the brain involved in processing emotions respond to the physiological demands of exercise.
Despite this recognized connection, researchers have lacked detailed information on how emotional intelligence relates to specific intensities of exercise. Most previous epidemiological studies have focused on general mental health outcomes or moderate-intensity activities. Vigorous physical activity, such as running or heavy weightlifting, presents unique regulatory demands because it repeatedly induces acute physical stress followed by recovery. This cycle of stress and recovery is thought to strengthen the body’s overall stress-adaptation mechanisms.
Public health researchers Albertas Skurvydas, Daiva Majauskiene, and their colleagues at Vytautas Magnus University and Klaipeda University in Lithuania designed a study to examine these relationships. They aimed to determine how emotional intelligence relates to various physical activity intensities, sedentary behavior, sleep, and body mass index. The research team also wanted to see if these behavioral associations varied by age or sex, given that men and women often display different patterns in both emotional processing and exercise habits.
The researchers recruited a large sample of 6,368 adults in Lithuania, ranging in age from 18 to 64. Women made up about 71 percent of the survey participants. The researchers used a cross-sectional design, meaning they collected data from the participants at a single point in time rather than tracking them over months or years. Participants completed questionnaires distributed through social media platforms, providing self-reported data on their daily routines and demographic backgrounds.
To measure emotional intelligence, the participants completed the 33-item Schutte Self-Report Emotional Intelligence Test. This widely used psychological tool asks individuals to rate their agreement with statements about how they manage their own feelings and react to the emotions of others. Higher total scores indicate a greater capacity for emotional perception and regulation.
The research team assessed exercise habits using the Danish Physical Activity Questionnaire. Participants recalled their activities over an average 24-hour period within the previous week. The researchers categorized these activities by intensity using metabolic equivalents, a standard metric that estimates the energy expenditure of different physical tasks compared to a resting state.
Activities were grouped into categories ranging from sedentary time to light, moderate, and vigorous physical activity. The researchers also calculated each participant’s body mass index based on self-reported height and weight.
After analyzing the survey responses, the researchers identified distinct age and sex patterns. Emotional intelligence scores increased with age for both men and women. Overall, women exhibited higher emotional intelligence scores than men and engaged in more light-intensity physical activity. Men, on average, had a higher body mass index and reported substantially more time spent engaged in vigorous physical activity.
The researchers then used statistical models to look for independent associations between emotional intelligence and specific health behaviors. Among women, higher emotional intelligence scores were linked to a greater amount of time spent doing vigorous physical activity. Women with higher emotional intelligence also reported less sedentary behavior. These associations held true across the entire adult age range studied.
The behavioral results for men were entirely different. Among male participants, age was the only factor positively associated with emotional intelligence. The researchers found no statistically significant links between a man’s emotional intelligence and his sleep duration, sedentary time, or participation in any intensity of physical activity.
When comparing the two groups directly, the statistical models confirmed that the association between vigorous physical activity and emotional intelligence was markedly stronger in women than in men. The data showed no corresponding interaction with age. This indicates that the relationship between intense exercise and emotional regulation in women did not fade or intensify as they got older.
The study relies entirely on cross-sectional data, which means it cannot determine the direction of the relationship between emotional intelligence and physical activity. Individuals with higher emotional intelligence might be more motivated to engage in demanding exercise, or the repeated physiological stress of vigorous activity might help train emotional regulation systems over time. It is also possible that a bidirectional relationship exists, where both factors continually reinforce one another.
The use of self-reported questionnaires introduces the possibility of reporting bias. Participants might have overestimated their physical activity levels or provided answers that they believed were socially desirable on the emotional intelligence assessment. This shared method of data collection can sometimes inflate the apparent associations between different variables.
The authors note that the observed associations, while present, were small in magnitude. The behavioral factors measured in the study explain only a limited portion of the total variance in emotional intelligence scores. Additionally, the recruitment method via social media may have attracted individuals who are already more health-conscious than the general population. Because the study was conducted entirely in Lithuania, the results might not fully generalize to populations in other cultural or socioeconomic environments.
Future research will need to employ longitudinal designs to track how changes in physical activity habits influence emotional intelligence over time. Experimental studies could also help determine whether modifying a person’s exercise routine directly alters their emotional regulation capabilities across the adult lifespan. Such studies would clarify whether behavioral interventions can effectively support emotional functioning.
The study, “Higher emotional intelligence is linked to greater vigorous physical activity and lower sedentary behavior, specifically among women across adulthood,” was authored by Albertas Skurvydas, Ausra Lisinskiene, Aiste Barbora Uspuriene, Egle Kemeryte-Ivanauskiene, Dovile Valanciene, Asta Sarkauskiene, Jurga Bucaite-Vilke, and Daiva Majauskiene.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/higher-emotional-intelligence-is-tied-to-vigorous-exercise-in-women/
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #EmotionalIntelligence # VigorousExercise #WomenAndFitness #MentalHealthAndExercise #GenderDifferences #SedentaryBehavior #PhysicalActivityIntensity #WellbeingThroughActivity #CrossSectionalStudy #HealthBehaviorWomen
What builds trust in digital-only banking—and does gender shape how that trust develops?
This new study examines how interface quality, perceived ease of use, and trust influence young users’ attitudes and intentions toward Neobanks. The findings highlight stronger trust effects among female participants and point to the value of intuitive, inclusive digital banking experiences.
https://doi.org/10.3846/bmee.2026.24000
#DigitalBanking #Neobanks #Fintech #Trust #GenderDifferences #UserExperience #BMEE
Evaluation of voluntary alcohol consumption by mice living either in a group or in isolation found that isolation increased the alcohol consumption by male mice, but reduced alcohol consumption by female mice. Isolation also increased signaling from the amygdala to the prefrontal cortex in males but not females; this brain circuit is associated with reward-related behaviors.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-026-02413-x
#Science #Isolation #Loneliness #Alcohol #GenderDifferences #SexDifferences
New Research Reveals Gender Differences in Brain Training Benefits
📰 Original title: The new science of brain workouts, beyond Sudoku and crosswords
🤖 IA: It's clickbait ⚠️
👥 Users: It's clickbait ⚠️
View full AI summary https://en.killbait.com/new-research-reveals-gender-differences-in-brain-training-benefits.html?utm_source=mastodon_social&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=killbait.mastodon_social
Examination of 47 mothers and their newborns found that higher maternal estrogen in the first trimester was associated with greater head circumference of the newborn. The effect was stronger for male than female babies.
Summary: https://neurosciencenews.com/prenatal-estrogen-newborn-iq-30996/
Original paper: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378378226001295
#Science #Pregnancy #Estrogen #SedDifferences #GenderDifferences
An interesting discussion of research results, and stereotypes, on the relative abilities of men and women to multitask:
#Science #Multitasking #Performance #GenderDifferences #SexDifferences
There are differences in the anatomy of men and women, and medical procedures are often designed for male anatomy.
https://theconversation.com/routine-medical-procedures-can-feel-harder-for-women-heres-why-274041
Sex Drive: 5 Surprising Facts from a 67k Person Study
Originally Published on January 27th, 2026 at 08:00 amWhat really drives sexual desire? We often rely on a handful of common assumptions about age, gender, and relationships to answer this question. But what happens when we peel back the layers and look at the science behind sex drive?
A groundbreaking study from the Estonian Biobank provides some of the clearest answers to date, challenging much of our conventional wisdom.
By analyzing data from over 67,000 participants (N = 67,334), researchers uncovered a complex tapestry of unseen forces shaping who wants sex and why. This article shares the most counter-intuitive findings from this massive study that are changing our understanding of human libido.
The Gender Gap in Desire is Wider and More Persistent Than we Thought
The first force this study brings into sharp focus is gender.
While it’s no secret that men, on average, report higher sex drive than women, this research revealed the difference to be exceptionally large and consistent across the lifespan.
In fact, the effect size found was even larger than those documented in previous large-scale meta-analyses. η² = 0.18, a large effect size indicating that gender alone explained a substantial 18% of the difference in desire.
This robust finding underscores just how profound and persistent the influence of gender is on libido. The study’s authors highlight the sheer magnitude of this difference across different life stages:
“Even the peak of average woman’s sexual desire at ages around 20 to 30 remains lower than men’s average levels across much of adulthood. It is only after the age of 60 + that men’s declining sexual desire falls below the highest levels ever reported by women.”
Furthermore, the research showed that this gap in desire actually widens with age, reaching its peak in the 60+ age group.
Men’s Sex Drive Peaks Surprisingly Late
We’re often told that a man’s sex drive is like a rocket. Supposedly peaking in his late teens and slowly coming down.
This study, however, suggests it’s more of a long climb to a high plateau.
Contrary to popular belief, men’s sexual desire actually peaked around their late 30s to early 40s. This finding was particularly surprising because it runs counter to what we know about male biology.
The researchers noted the unexpected nature of this pattern:
“A noteworthy finding was that men’s sexual desire peaked around the age of 40, exceeding even early adulthood levels… This pattern is surprising because it does not align with the well-documented trajectory of testosterone decline…”
This suggests that factors beyond simple biology are at play.
The researchers propose that men in this age group “are more likely to be in stable long-term relationships, which have been associated with increased sexual activity and emotional intimacy.”
In another fascinating hypothesis, they suggest that as men get older, their “levels of desire may be starting to adapt to their partner’s declining levels of desire,” which could help explain the drop-off in later life.
Licensed Professional Counselors, do you need continuing education hours?
Look no further!
If you find this article interesting, Dr. Weeks’ course Sexual Education and Porn Use in Women, and her other unique courses, will engage and educate!
Parenthood Affects Men and Women’s Desire in Opposite Ways
One of the most fascinating unseen forces revealed by the study was how parenthood impacts libido differently for men and women.
For men, having more children was consistently associated with higher sexual desire. This effect grew stronger with each additional child, with the largest positive association found in fathers with five children. β = 0.43, indicating a strong positive association between fatherhood of five children and higher desire compared to mothers.
This stands in stark contrast to the experience of women, where the demands of parenthood are frequently linked to a decline in desire. A trend also suggested by the study’s data.
The researchers speculate that this opposing effect may reflect:
“…gendered differences in parental roles, stress levels, time availability, and energy investment within a family.”
They also offer a thought-provoking alternative explanation: it’s possible that “higher levels of desire may contribute to men having more children” in the first place, showing the complex relationship between cause and effect.
Single People May Actually Have a Higher Sex Drive
It’s often assumed that being in a committed relationship is the key to a healthy sex drive.
At first glance, the data seemed to support this, showing that partnered people had slightly higher desire on average. But when the researchers used a more powerful statistical lens, controlling for factors like age and gender, the picture flipped.
Partnered individuals actually reported lower sexual desire compared to their single counterparts. β = −0.10, a small but statistically significant effect suggesting that, all else being equal, being in a relationship was linked to a slight decrease in desire.
This surprising result challenges the idea that a relationship automatically sustains high desire. The study’s authors suggest this could be related to habituation in long-term partnerships, a phenomenon that “particularly for women, points to the potential for habituation and shifts in relational dynamics over time.”
In other words, the comfort of a long-term relationship may sometimes come at the expense of novelty.
Are you a professional looking to stay up-to-date with the latest information on, sex addiction, trauma, and mental health news and research? Or maybe you’re looking for continuing education courses?
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Your Career Choice Could Be Linked to Your Libido
In perhaps the most novel finding, the study uncovered a remarkable link between a person’s occupation and their level of sexual desire. Simple averages suggested that people in manual-labor and military jobs had the highest libido, but the researchers quickly noted this was likely because those fields are dominated by younger men.
The real story emerged after controlling for factors like age and gender. The study then compared all occupations to a baseline group: senior managers. The results were clear:
This highlights the often-overlooked connection between our professional lives, daily stress, and our personal well-being. It suggests that the pressures and routines of our jobs can be a powerful, hidden influence on our libido.
Conclusion: Rethinking What We Know About Sex Drive
This research paints a new picture where desire isn’t just a biological switch. It’s a dynamic outcome of a person’s age, gender, parental role, relationship status, and even their career.
The fact that these demographic and life factors alone could explain nearly 30% of the variance in sexual desire underscores just how profoundly they shape this fundamental human experience.
As we learn more about the complex web of factors that shape our desires, how might we change the conversations we have about sexuality in our own relationships?
Drop your thoughts in the comments.
For an in-depth guide on talking to your adolescents about cybersex and pornography, check out Dr. Jen’s book. Amazon | BookBaby
Do you feel your sexual behavior, or that of someone you love, is out of control? Then you should consult with a professional.
Are you looking for more reputable data-backed information on sexual addiction? The Mitigation Aide Research Archive is an excellent source for executive summaries of research studies.
#ageAndLibido #biopsychosocialModel #couplesCounseling #EstonianBiobank #evidenceBasedTherapy #genderDifferences #habituation #intimacy #largeScaleStudy #libido #marriageAndSex #menSDesire #mentalHealth #occupationalStress #parenthoodAndLibido #psychologyOfSex #relationshipDynamics #sexDrive #sexEducation #sexResearch #sexualDesire #sexualFrequency #sexualHealth #sexualWellbeing #singleVsPartnered #stressAndLibido #womenSDesire
Explore the fascinating differences in memory between men and women! We delve into why women remember stories more vividly while men struggle with recall. Discover the humor and insights in this engaging comparison of memory skills. #MemoryGames #MemorySkills #GenderDifferences #WomensMemory #MensMemory #CognitivePsychology #BrainFacts #MemoryComparison #RecallAbility #FunnyMoments #MindGames
Hot off the press - our report on gender disparities in grant seeking at the University of Cambridge (who applies for and who gets research grant funding).
The story:
1) The structural disparities are big (not so surprising)
2) The patterns of disparity at particular grades in particular disciplines go both ways (more surprising)
#ResearchPolicy
#ResearchGrants
#GenderDifferences
#Bayesian
If you like graphs, you'll probably like it!
Middle-aged men use more dating apps, and for longer, than women https://www.psypost.org/middle-aged-men-use-more-dating-apps-and-for-longer-than-women/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #DatingApps #MiddleAgedMen #DatingTrends #HeterosexualDating #GenderDifferences
Eye-tracking study reveals where women and men look when viewing a female butt https://www.psypost.org/eye-tracking-study-reveals-where-women-and-men-look-when-viewing-a-female-butt/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #EyeTracking #GenderDifferences #ResearchStudy #HumanBehavior #VisualAttention
Men exhibit stronger sunk cost bias than women when mating motives are activated https://www.psypost.org/men-exhibit-stronger-sunk-cost-bias-than-women-when-mating-motives-are-activated/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #SunkCostBias #MatingPsychology #GenderDifferences #RomanticCues #InvestmentBehavior
New research sheds light on how men and women differ in concerns about sexual addiction https://www.psypost.org/new-research-sheds-light-on-how-men-and-women-differ-in-concerns-about-sexual-addiction/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #SexualAddiction #MentalHealth #GenderDifferences #CompulsiveBehavior #SexualHealth
Are women better at forecasting relationship outcomes? New study provides intriguing insights https://www.psypost.org/are-women-better-at-forecasting-relationship-outcomes-new-study-provides-intriguing-insights/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #WomenInScience #RelationshipGoals #GenderDifferences #NewStudy #ResearchInsights
After exposure to anesthetics, females regain consciousness and cognition faster than males https://www.psypost.org/after-exposure-to-anesthetics-females-regain-consciousness-and-cognition-faster-than-males/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #FemaleBrain #Anesthetics #Consciousness #Cognition #GenderDifferences
New research: Married men age more gracefully — but for women, it’s complicated https://www.psypost.org/new-research-married-men-age-more-gracefully-but-for-women-its-complicated/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #MarriageAging #SuccessfulAging #GenderDifferences #MarriedMen #AgingGracefully
Researchers discover surprising gender gap in online reviews on “a gigantic scale” https://www.psypost.org/researchers-discover-surprising-gender-gap-in-online-reviews-on-a-gigantic-scale/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #GenderGap #OnlineReviews #Research #Study #GenderDifferences
Men Really Do Eat More Meat Than Women, Study Says 🍔🥩
When given the choice, men tend to eat more meat while women eat less, researchers say. 🧑🔬
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/bc-climate-men-eating-meat_l_666b7328e4b082cfb5d9bebe
#MeatEating #DietChoices #GenderDifferences #FoodStudy #ScienceFindings
Songs that are about #science are great - like this one about gender differences in spatial navigation.
'Sex-based differences in Lyme disease symptoms and outcomes'
"Women reported a higher prevalence of tick-borne co-infections, more severe symptoms, longer diagnostic delays, increased misdiagnoses, and greater functional impairment compared to men."
@draliceevans @AngieMaxwell This is super interesting, Alice. Which survey is it? #sexism #discrimination #genderDifferences #ModernSexism... Remember to use #hashtags so people can find you by topic, Alice.. 😄