#gender-differences — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #gender-differences, aggregated by home.social.
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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
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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
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DATE: July 5, 2026 at 07:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Love addiction, emotional dependence, and manic love have distinct psychological profiles
Problematic patterns of romantic attachment are not all the same, according to a new systematic review published in Archives of Sexual Behavior. Researchers found that manic love, emotional dependence, and love addiction each have distinct psychological profiles, suggesting they should be studied and treated as separate conditions rather than being grouped together.
Most romantic relationships contribute positively to people’s well-being. However, for some individuals, romantic relationships become marked by obsession, excessive dependence, or compulsive attachment that interferes with daily life. Scientists have used different names for these behaviors—including manic love, emotional dependence, and love addiction—but there has been little agreement about whether they describe the same or different problems.
The researchers set out to clarify this by reviewing decades of research and comparing the psychological characteristics associated with each form of problematic love behavior. They also wanted to determine whether these patterns differed depending on the gender composition of study samples.
Led by Magdalena Sánchez-Fernández, a researcher at the University of Cádiz in Spain, the team searched four major scientific databases and identified 102 eligible studies. The final sample included 55 studies on manic love, 34 on emotional dependence, and 13 on love addiction. Across the studies, sample sizes ranged from 63 to 3,375 participants, with the proportion of women varying from 0% to 94.2%.
The team discovered that each type of problematic love behavior was associated with a different pattern of psychological characteristics. For example, relationship satisfaction exhibited opposite patterns of association across the domains. Higher relationship satisfaction was significantly associated with emotional dependence, but lower relationship satisfaction was significantly associated with manic love attitudes.
Additionally, anxious insecure attachment was significantly associated with love addiction but was not a significant meta-analytic correlate of emotional dependence. These findings provide empirical support for the hypothesis that these behaviors are distinct psychological entities that must be investigated independently.
Among the three types of problematic love behaviors, emotional dependence was linked to the widest range of psychological and relationship factors. Emotional dependence was tied to alcohol and substance use, behavioral addictions, violence (both received and perpetrated), and relationship satisfaction. Low self-esteem emerged as a common feature of both emotional dependence and manic love, while behavioral addictions were linked to both emotional dependence and love addiction.
The researchers also identified notable gender differences. The relationship between manic love and jealousy, as well as between manic love and lower relationship satisfaction, was stronger in studies involving higher proportions of women. By contrast, the association between love addiction and anxious attachment was stronger in studies with more men. These findings indicate that gender may influence how problematic relationship behaviors develop or are expressed.
Sánchez-Fernández and colleagues concluded, “The ultimate intention of this study is to move beyond the pathologization of problematic romantic behaviors. We align with authors who argue that problematic behaviors are not clinical pathologies or syndromes but rather stem from maladaptive cognitions, behaviors, and coping strategies that result in negative daily life consequences.”
The authors note several important limitations. For instance, nearly every study included in the review used a cross-sectional design, meaning it is impossible to determine whether the psychological factors caused problematic love behaviors or resulted from them. The research also heavily relied on studies from the United States, Spain, and Italy, and the findings may not translate across all cultures or non-monogamous relationship styles.
The study, “Problematic Love Behaviors and Correlated Factors: A Systematic Review with Subgroup Meta-Analysis Including Gender/Sex Moderation,” was authored by Magdalena Sánchez-Fernández, Nerea Almeda, and Mercedes Borda-Mas.
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Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #LoveAddiction #EmotionalDependence #ManicLove #RomanticAttachment #PsychologyResearch #RelationshipPatterns #GenderDifferences #AttachmentTheory #MentalHealthAwareness #DatingWellBeing
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DATE: July 5, 2026 at 07:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Love addiction, emotional dependence, and manic love have distinct psychological profiles
Problematic patterns of romantic attachment are not all the same, according to a new systematic review published in Archives of Sexual Behavior. Researchers found that manic love, emotional dependence, and love addiction each have distinct psychological profiles, suggesting they should be studied and treated as separate conditions rather than being grouped together.
Most romantic relationships contribute positively to people’s well-being. However, for some individuals, romantic relationships become marked by obsession, excessive dependence, or compulsive attachment that interferes with daily life. Scientists have used different names for these behaviors—including manic love, emotional dependence, and love addiction—but there has been little agreement about whether they describe the same or different problems.
The researchers set out to clarify this by reviewing decades of research and comparing the psychological characteristics associated with each form of problematic love behavior. They also wanted to determine whether these patterns differed depending on the gender composition of study samples.
Led by Magdalena Sánchez-Fernández, a researcher at the University of Cádiz in Spain, the team searched four major scientific databases and identified 102 eligible studies. The final sample included 55 studies on manic love, 34 on emotional dependence, and 13 on love addiction. Across the studies, sample sizes ranged from 63 to 3,375 participants, with the proportion of women varying from 0% to 94.2%.
The team discovered that each type of problematic love behavior was associated with a different pattern of psychological characteristics. For example, relationship satisfaction exhibited opposite patterns of association across the domains. Higher relationship satisfaction was significantly associated with emotional dependence, but lower relationship satisfaction was significantly associated with manic love attitudes.
Additionally, anxious insecure attachment was significantly associated with love addiction but was not a significant meta-analytic correlate of emotional dependence. These findings provide empirical support for the hypothesis that these behaviors are distinct psychological entities that must be investigated independently.
Among the three types of problematic love behaviors, emotional dependence was linked to the widest range of psychological and relationship factors. Emotional dependence was tied to alcohol and substance use, behavioral addictions, violence (both received and perpetrated), and relationship satisfaction. Low self-esteem emerged as a common feature of both emotional dependence and manic love, while behavioral addictions were linked to both emotional dependence and love addiction.
The researchers also identified notable gender differences. The relationship between manic love and jealousy, as well as between manic love and lower relationship satisfaction, was stronger in studies involving higher proportions of women. By contrast, the association between love addiction and anxious attachment was stronger in studies with more men. These findings indicate that gender may influence how problematic relationship behaviors develop or are expressed.
Sánchez-Fernández and colleagues concluded, “The ultimate intention of this study is to move beyond the pathologization of problematic romantic behaviors. We align with authors who argue that problematic behaviors are not clinical pathologies or syndromes but rather stem from maladaptive cognitions, behaviors, and coping strategies that result in negative daily life consequences.”
The authors note several important limitations. For instance, nearly every study included in the review used a cross-sectional design, meaning it is impossible to determine whether the psychological factors caused problematic love behaviors or resulted from them. The research also heavily relied on studies from the United States, Spain, and Italy, and the findings may not translate across all cultures or non-monogamous relationship styles.
The study, “Problematic Love Behaviors and Correlated Factors: A Systematic Review with Subgroup Meta-Analysis Including Gender/Sex Moderation,” was authored by Magdalena Sánchez-Fernández, Nerea Almeda, and Mercedes Borda-Mas.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #LoveAddiction #EmotionalDependence #ManicLove #RomanticAttachment #PsychologyResearch #RelationshipPatterns #GenderDifferences #AttachmentTheory #MentalHealthAwareness #DatingWellBeing
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DATE: July 2, 2026 at 02:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: New study reveals how male and female job loss disrupts family planning differently
An analysis of data from Norway administrative databases covering the period between 2005 and 2017 found that job loss seems to disrupt childbirth, but that specific effects depend on gender. Female partner’s job loss made it less likely that a couple will have their first child, regardless of household income at the time of the job loss. On the other hand, male partners’ job loss disrupted couple’s progression to having a second child. The paper was published in Social Science Research.
Employment and income instability occur when people face uncertain work, irregular earnings, involuntary job loss, or repeated periods of unemployment. Such instability reduces household resources and can make ordinary expenses, debt payments, housing costs, and future commitments more difficult to manage. However, its psychological consequences extend beyond the immediate loss of income because employment also provides routine, social status, identity, and a sense of purpose.
When a job disappears unexpectedly, individuals may experience anxiety, shame, helplessness, and reduced confidence in their ability to control their lives. Uncertainty about how long unemployment will last can be particularly stressful because it prevents people from making reliable plans for housing, education, marriage, or parenthood. Even in generous welfare states that replace part of the lost income, fears about long-term career prospects and recurrent unemployment may persist.
Job loss tends to be especially damaging when employment is closely connected to socially expected roles, such as the expectation that men should provide financially for their families. Persistent insecurity can also strain relationships, increase conflict between partners, and make separation more likely. People with savings, higher earnings, or stronger welfare entitlements are generally better able to absorb employment shocks, whereas economically vulnerable households tend to experience more severe and lasting psychological distress.
Study author Rishabh Tyagi and his colleagues studied the link between job loss and fertility (i.e., people having children) in Norway in the period between 2005 and 2017. This included the period of the so-called Great Recession, the global economic downturn triggered by the 2007-2008 financial crisis.
Study authors note that the case of Norway was somewhat special as it was affected less severely by the Great Recession than many countries because of its strong oil revenues, strong public finances, and welfare system. However, it still experienced company closures and resulting job loss, reduced economic growth, and people’s increased uncertainty about future employment and income. In this period, unemployment in Norway ranged between 2.7% and 4.9%, which is considerably lower than in most European countries.
The authors of this study used Norwegian administrative data from employment-employee and population registers. The employer-employee registers for a given year cover the population with active employment that year and who receive a wage in that year. Data from this register used in this study covered the period from 2005 to 2014.
Study authors linked these data to the population register, which provides detailed information on economic activity, educational attainment, marital status, and childbirth records. Study authors focused on partnered men and women who were between 15 and 50 years of age (i.e., of reproductive age), and registered as residents in Norway. Data from the population register covered the entire study period.
Results indicated that job loss in general was associated with disrupted childbirth. However, the likely effects depended on gender and income. More specifically, when a female partner experienced job loss due to a plant closure, the likelihood that the couple would have their first child decreased by 1.82 percentage points. This negative effect remained even after controlling for household income at the time of job loss.
On the other hand, a male partner experiencing a job loss was not associated with decreased likelihood of having the first child. A male partner’s job loss delayed the time when the couple would have the second child.
“The limited role of income suggests that fertility responses to job loss are not reducible to short-run financial constraints. Instead, they reflect how employment structures couples’ life-course planning and perceived readiness for parenthood. That female job loss deters entry into parenthood while male job loss deters expansion implies that economic-role convergence has not paralleled convergence in the social meaning of job loss,” the study authors concluded.
The study contributes to the scientific understanding of the links between the domains of work and family. However, it should be noted that the case of Norway is special both because the negative economic effects experienced during the studied period were less severe compared to other countries and because Norway has strong welfare protections that mitigate the adverse financial consequences of job loss. Studies in countries with worse economic performance and less comprehensive welfare may differ, likely showing more severe consequences of job loss.
The paper, “Job loss and births. A couple-level study of Norwegian plant closures,” was authored by Rishabh Tyagi, Elisa Brini, and Daniele Vignoli.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #JobLoss #FertilityResearch #NorwayStudy #CouplePlanning #GenderDifferences #FamilyPlanning #EconomicUncertainty #LaborMarketImpact #BirthRates #SocialScienceResearch
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DATE: July 2, 2026 at 02:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: New study reveals how male and female job loss disrupts family planning differently
An analysis of data from Norway administrative databases covering the period between 2005 and 2017 found that job loss seems to disrupt childbirth, but that specific effects depend on gender. Female partner’s job loss made it less likely that a couple will have their first child, regardless of household income at the time of the job loss. On the other hand, male partners’ job loss disrupted couple’s progression to having a second child. The paper was published in Social Science Research.
Employment and income instability occur when people face uncertain work, irregular earnings, involuntary job loss, or repeated periods of unemployment. Such instability reduces household resources and can make ordinary expenses, debt payments, housing costs, and future commitments more difficult to manage. However, its psychological consequences extend beyond the immediate loss of income because employment also provides routine, social status, identity, and a sense of purpose.
When a job disappears unexpectedly, individuals may experience anxiety, shame, helplessness, and reduced confidence in their ability to control their lives. Uncertainty about how long unemployment will last can be particularly stressful because it prevents people from making reliable plans for housing, education, marriage, or parenthood. Even in generous welfare states that replace part of the lost income, fears about long-term career prospects and recurrent unemployment may persist.
Job loss tends to be especially damaging when employment is closely connected to socially expected roles, such as the expectation that men should provide financially for their families. Persistent insecurity can also strain relationships, increase conflict between partners, and make separation more likely. People with savings, higher earnings, or stronger welfare entitlements are generally better able to absorb employment shocks, whereas economically vulnerable households tend to experience more severe and lasting psychological distress.
Study author Rishabh Tyagi and his colleagues studied the link between job loss and fertility (i.e., people having children) in Norway in the period between 2005 and 2017. This included the period of the so-called Great Recession, the global economic downturn triggered by the 2007-2008 financial crisis.
Study authors note that the case of Norway was somewhat special as it was affected less severely by the Great Recession than many countries because of its strong oil revenues, strong public finances, and welfare system. However, it still experienced company closures and resulting job loss, reduced economic growth, and people’s increased uncertainty about future employment and income. In this period, unemployment in Norway ranged between 2.7% and 4.9%, which is considerably lower than in most European countries.
The authors of this study used Norwegian administrative data from employment-employee and population registers. The employer-employee registers for a given year cover the population with active employment that year and who receive a wage in that year. Data from this register used in this study covered the period from 2005 to 2014.
Study authors linked these data to the population register, which provides detailed information on economic activity, educational attainment, marital status, and childbirth records. Study authors focused on partnered men and women who were between 15 and 50 years of age (i.e., of reproductive age), and registered as residents in Norway. Data from the population register covered the entire study period.
Results indicated that job loss in general was associated with disrupted childbirth. However, the likely effects depended on gender and income. More specifically, when a female partner experienced job loss due to a plant closure, the likelihood that the couple would have their first child decreased by 1.82 percentage points. This negative effect remained even after controlling for household income at the time of job loss.
On the other hand, a male partner experiencing a job loss was not associated with decreased likelihood of having the first child. A male partner’s job loss delayed the time when the couple would have the second child.
“The limited role of income suggests that fertility responses to job loss are not reducible to short-run financial constraints. Instead, they reflect how employment structures couples’ life-course planning and perceived readiness for parenthood. That female job loss deters entry into parenthood while male job loss deters expansion implies that economic-role convergence has not paralleled convergence in the social meaning of job loss,” the study authors concluded.
The study contributes to the scientific understanding of the links between the domains of work and family. However, it should be noted that the case of Norway is special both because the negative economic effects experienced during the studied period were less severe compared to other countries and because Norway has strong welfare protections that mitigate the adverse financial consequences of job loss. Studies in countries with worse economic performance and less comprehensive welfare may differ, likely showing more severe consequences of job loss.
The paper, “Job loss and births. A couple-level study of Norwegian plant closures,” was authored by Rishabh Tyagi, Elisa Brini, and Daniele Vignoli.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #JobLoss #FertilityResearch #NorwayStudy #CouplePlanning #GenderDifferences #FamilyPlanning #EconomicUncertainty #LaborMarketImpact #BirthRates #SocialScienceResearch
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An interesting discussion of research results, and stereotypes, on the relative abilities of men and women to multitask:
#Science #Multitasking #Performance #GenderDifferences #SexDifferences
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An interesting discussion of research results, and stereotypes, on the relative abilities of men and women to multitask:
#Science #Multitasking #Performance #GenderDifferences #SexDifferences
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DATE: June 27, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Men and women show different psychological links between the “fit ideal” and risky behaviors
URL: https://www.psypost.org/how-the-social-media-fitness-ideal-affects-men-and-women-differently/
A modern societal body standard that values both leanness and physical muscle tone is driving unhealthy exercise and eating habits in both men and women. While both genders internalize these pressures from internet platforms to a similar degree, the psychological pathways leading to risky behaviors differ by gender. The research detailing these patterns was published in the journal Sex Roles.
Historically, researchers assessed societal body standards as separate concepts for men and women. The classic cultural expectation for women was extreme thinness, which prioritized low body weight without focusing on strength. The expectation for men was a highly muscular, bulky physique. Now, these separate beauty standards are merging into a centralized body type that researchers call the fit ideal, which appeals to a broad demographic.
This newer appearance standard requires a person to possess very low body fat along with noticeable muscle tone. Achieving this specific balance is biologically difficult for the average person. Getting highly toned often requires a calorie surplus to build muscle mass, while remaining extremely lean requires a calorie deficit to burn fat. Because these physiological states are at odds, the fit ideal is largely an unattainable goal.
The rise of image-focused internet platforms has heavily promoted this athletic aesthetic. Hashtags related to fitness motivation accompany millions of posts featuring lean and toned individuals. While often disguised as content promoting health, these images generally prioritize physical attractiveness over actual well-being. Consuming this type of media puts pressure on users to match an aesthetic that is largely out of reach.
Over time, individuals may absorb these external standards and adopt them as their own personal goals. This psychological process is known as internalization. To better understand how the modern athletic standard impacts physical and mental health once internalized, a team of researchers from Australia and Canada designed a new psychological investigation.
The team was led by behavioral researcher Robyn Louw at Griffith University in Australia, along with colleagues Caroline Donovan, Laura Uhlmann, Kyle T. Ganson, and Timothy Piatkowski. They wanted to test a sociological framework that explains how media and peers influence individual body image.
The framework suggests that social pressures lead people outward to compare their bodies to others. Eventually, they absorb the cultural standard as a personal requirement. This internal pressure is then thought to foster extreme dissatisfaction with one’s own appearance. That dissatisfaction ultimately results in disordered eating and obsessive workout routines as the person desperately tries to change their shape.
Louw and the team recruited 288 adults residing in Australia to complete a series of psychological surveys. The average age of the participants was nearly 23 years old. About 70 percent of the group identified as women. A majority of the group reported being active on image-heavy internet platforms like Instagram and TikTok, with many engaging in weekly weight training.
The surveys asked participants to rate the level of pressure they felt from their peers and from social media regarding their physical appearance. Participants also answered questions designed to measure how often they compared their bodies to others and how deeply they had absorbed the fit ideal as a personal goal. Another section of the survey quantified how dissatisfied participants were with their own physical traits.
Finally, the researchers measured the extent to which participants engaged in harmful behaviors to achieve a lean and muscular body. One measure assessed compulsive exercise, identifying individuals who felt extreme guilt when missing a workout or who exercised despite illness or physical injury. Another measure assessed disordered eating patterns specifically aimed at gaining muscle, such as obsessively tracking protein intake or feeling intense anxiety about meals.
After collecting the survey responses, the team used a statistical modeling technique to review the data. This mathematical approach allows researchers to map out a sequence of relationships between different psychological factors. Rather than just seeing if two things are related, the statistical models help determine if one factor predicts a second, which in turn predicts a third. The researchers created separate models for the men and the women in the study.
The mathematical models revealed that men and women absorbed the fit ideal to an almost identical degree. In both groups, high levels of social media exposure predicted a stronger internal desire to attain a lean and toned body. This finding confirmed the researchers’ hypothesis that the athletic aesthetic represents a common goal across genders today. Beyond this shared starting point, the psychological pathways connecting media exposure to risky behaviors diverged.
For women, the path from social pressure to harmful habits involved multiple interconnected steps. Both social media and peer interactions strongly predicted how often women compared their bodies to others. These comparisons, along with an internalized desire to be fit, regularly predicted higher levels of body dissatisfaction. As women became less satisfied with their own bodies, they were increasingly likely to report disordered eating routines geared toward building muscle.
Interpersonal dynamics played a uniquely visible role among the women in the study. Peer pressure not only fostered body dissatisfaction through external comparisons, but it also directly predicted muscle-focused disordered eating. When women felt appearance-related pressure from friends or acquaintances, they were highly likely to engage in strict aesthetic diets. This suggests that women experience intense scrutiny regarding fitness goals within their immediate social networks.
The statistical model for men painted a distinct picture. Just like the women, the men felt pressure from internet platforms, which led them to absorb the lean and muscular standard. But unlike the women, this internal drive predicted compulsive exercise and disordered eating directly, skipping the intermediate step of body dissatisfaction. For the male participants, simply feeling the need to achieve the ideal was heavily linked to obsessive behaviors, regardless of how they currently felt about their own bodies.
On top of that, interpersonal dynamics did not appear to dictate men’s behavior in the same way. The statistical paths connecting peer pressure to body image concerns and risky eating habits were notably weak in the male group. Broad cultural messaging on the internet seemed to act as the primary driver of extreme fitness habits for these men.
The researchers highlighted a few limitations in their work. Because the data was collected at a single point in time, the study cannot definitively prove that one psychological factor causes changes in another. The participant pool was also relatively small, predominantly female, and consisted mostly of college students of European descent. The authors recommended that future studies include more diverse groups to see if these patterns hold across different demographic backgrounds.
Additionally, the sample was restricted to individuals who identified strictly within the binary categories of man or woman. This restriction means the findings do not capture the experiences of non-binary, genderqueer, or genderfluid individuals. Those outside the traditional gender binary often face unique societal pressures regarding body image, making it an area ripe for expanded research.
Ultimately, this research indicates that the modern athletic aesthetic is not a neutral or universally healthy concept. While the standard looks identical for everyone on the surface, public health initiatives may need to address it differently depending on the audience. Programs designed to help women might need to focus on navigating social comparisons and peer groups. Conversely, education directed at men might see more success by directly addressing how digital media content alters individual aspirations.
The study, “Fit for Whom? Gendered Impacts of the Fit Ideal on Body Image and Behavior,” was authored by Robyn Louw, Caroline Donovan, Laura Uhlmann, Kyle T. Ganson, and Timothy Piatkowski.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/how-the-social-media-fitness-ideal-affects-men-and-women-differently/
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #FitIdeal #BodyImage #MuscleAndLean #DisorderedEating #CompulsiveExercise #SocialMediaPressure #GenderDifferences #FitnessStandards #MindBodyHealth #HealthEducation
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DATE: June 27, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Men and women show different psychological links between the “fit ideal” and risky behaviors
URL: https://www.psypost.org/how-the-social-media-fitness-ideal-affects-men-and-women-differently/
A modern societal body standard that values both leanness and physical muscle tone is driving unhealthy exercise and eating habits in both men and women. While both genders internalize these pressures from internet platforms to a similar degree, the psychological pathways leading to risky behaviors differ by gender. The research detailing these patterns was published in the journal Sex Roles.
Historically, researchers assessed societal body standards as separate concepts for men and women. The classic cultural expectation for women was extreme thinness, which prioritized low body weight without focusing on strength. The expectation for men was a highly muscular, bulky physique. Now, these separate beauty standards are merging into a centralized body type that researchers call the fit ideal, which appeals to a broad demographic.
This newer appearance standard requires a person to possess very low body fat along with noticeable muscle tone. Achieving this specific balance is biologically difficult for the average person. Getting highly toned often requires a calorie surplus to build muscle mass, while remaining extremely lean requires a calorie deficit to burn fat. Because these physiological states are at odds, the fit ideal is largely an unattainable goal.
The rise of image-focused internet platforms has heavily promoted this athletic aesthetic. Hashtags related to fitness motivation accompany millions of posts featuring lean and toned individuals. While often disguised as content promoting health, these images generally prioritize physical attractiveness over actual well-being. Consuming this type of media puts pressure on users to match an aesthetic that is largely out of reach.
Over time, individuals may absorb these external standards and adopt them as their own personal goals. This psychological process is known as internalization. To better understand how the modern athletic standard impacts physical and mental health once internalized, a team of researchers from Australia and Canada designed a new psychological investigation.
The team was led by behavioral researcher Robyn Louw at Griffith University in Australia, along with colleagues Caroline Donovan, Laura Uhlmann, Kyle T. Ganson, and Timothy Piatkowski. They wanted to test a sociological framework that explains how media and peers influence individual body image.
The framework suggests that social pressures lead people outward to compare their bodies to others. Eventually, they absorb the cultural standard as a personal requirement. This internal pressure is then thought to foster extreme dissatisfaction with one’s own appearance. That dissatisfaction ultimately results in disordered eating and obsessive workout routines as the person desperately tries to change their shape.
Louw and the team recruited 288 adults residing in Australia to complete a series of psychological surveys. The average age of the participants was nearly 23 years old. About 70 percent of the group identified as women. A majority of the group reported being active on image-heavy internet platforms like Instagram and TikTok, with many engaging in weekly weight training.
The surveys asked participants to rate the level of pressure they felt from their peers and from social media regarding their physical appearance. Participants also answered questions designed to measure how often they compared their bodies to others and how deeply they had absorbed the fit ideal as a personal goal. Another section of the survey quantified how dissatisfied participants were with their own physical traits.
Finally, the researchers measured the extent to which participants engaged in harmful behaviors to achieve a lean and muscular body. One measure assessed compulsive exercise, identifying individuals who felt extreme guilt when missing a workout or who exercised despite illness or physical injury. Another measure assessed disordered eating patterns specifically aimed at gaining muscle, such as obsessively tracking protein intake or feeling intense anxiety about meals.
After collecting the survey responses, the team used a statistical modeling technique to review the data. This mathematical approach allows researchers to map out a sequence of relationships between different psychological factors. Rather than just seeing if two things are related, the statistical models help determine if one factor predicts a second, which in turn predicts a third. The researchers created separate models for the men and the women in the study.
The mathematical models revealed that men and women absorbed the fit ideal to an almost identical degree. In both groups, high levels of social media exposure predicted a stronger internal desire to attain a lean and toned body. This finding confirmed the researchers’ hypothesis that the athletic aesthetic represents a common goal across genders today. Beyond this shared starting point, the psychological pathways connecting media exposure to risky behaviors diverged.
For women, the path from social pressure to harmful habits involved multiple interconnected steps. Both social media and peer interactions strongly predicted how often women compared their bodies to others. These comparisons, along with an internalized desire to be fit, regularly predicted higher levels of body dissatisfaction. As women became less satisfied with their own bodies, they were increasingly likely to report disordered eating routines geared toward building muscle.
Interpersonal dynamics played a uniquely visible role among the women in the study. Peer pressure not only fostered body dissatisfaction through external comparisons, but it also directly predicted muscle-focused disordered eating. When women felt appearance-related pressure from friends or acquaintances, they were highly likely to engage in strict aesthetic diets. This suggests that women experience intense scrutiny regarding fitness goals within their immediate social networks.
The statistical model for men painted a distinct picture. Just like the women, the men felt pressure from internet platforms, which led them to absorb the lean and muscular standard. But unlike the women, this internal drive predicted compulsive exercise and disordered eating directly, skipping the intermediate step of body dissatisfaction. For the male participants, simply feeling the need to achieve the ideal was heavily linked to obsessive behaviors, regardless of how they currently felt about their own bodies.
On top of that, interpersonal dynamics did not appear to dictate men’s behavior in the same way. The statistical paths connecting peer pressure to body image concerns and risky eating habits were notably weak in the male group. Broad cultural messaging on the internet seemed to act as the primary driver of extreme fitness habits for these men.
The researchers highlighted a few limitations in their work. Because the data was collected at a single point in time, the study cannot definitively prove that one psychological factor causes changes in another. The participant pool was also relatively small, predominantly female, and consisted mostly of college students of European descent. The authors recommended that future studies include more diverse groups to see if these patterns hold across different demographic backgrounds.
Additionally, the sample was restricted to individuals who identified strictly within the binary categories of man or woman. This restriction means the findings do not capture the experiences of non-binary, genderqueer, or genderfluid individuals. Those outside the traditional gender binary often face unique societal pressures regarding body image, making it an area ripe for expanded research.
Ultimately, this research indicates that the modern athletic aesthetic is not a neutral or universally healthy concept. While the standard looks identical for everyone on the surface, public health initiatives may need to address it differently depending on the audience. Programs designed to help women might need to focus on navigating social comparisons and peer groups. Conversely, education directed at men might see more success by directly addressing how digital media content alters individual aspirations.
The study, “Fit for Whom? Gendered Impacts of the Fit Ideal on Body Image and Behavior,” was authored by Robyn Louw, Caroline Donovan, Laura Uhlmann, Kyle T. Ganson, and Timothy Piatkowski.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/how-the-social-media-fitness-ideal-affects-men-and-women-differently/
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-
DATE: June 26, 2026 at 09:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Personality shifts during adolescence unfold differently for boys and girls
URL: https://www.psypost.org/personality-shifts-during-adolescence-unfold-differently-for-boys-and-girls/
A longitudinal study examining personality changes between 10 and 16 years of age found that conscientiousness and agreeableness tend to decline from age 12 to 16. Neuroticism increased during the studied period, but only in girls. The paper was published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
Personality is the relatively stable pattern of thoughts, emotions, motivations, and behaviors that makes each person distinctive. It influences how people perceive situations, interact with others, respond to challenges, and make decisions. Personality develops through a combination of genetic influences, early experiences, social relationships, culture, and life events.
One of the most widely used scientific models of personality is the Big Five model. One trait in this framework, openness to experience, describes curiosity, imagination, creativity, and a willingness to consider new ideas. Conscientiousness refers to being organized, responsible, disciplined, dependable, and focused on achieving goals. Extraversion involves sociability, assertiveness, enthusiasm, energy, and a tendency to seek stimulation from other people.
Agreeableness reflects kindness, cooperation, empathy, trust, and concern for the needs of others. Neuroticism describes a tendency to experience negative emotions such as anxiety, sadness, irritability, and emotional instability. Underneath these broad categories are narrower traits called facets. For example, conscientiousness includes the specific facets of order and self-discipline, while neuroticism includes anxiety and depression.
Study author Silje Steinsbekk and her colleagues explored how these overarching traits and their specific facets change as children mature. They noted two opposing views about the developmental trajectory of personality. One view expects that as children mature, they become more conscientious, agreeable, and emotionally stable. An opposing idea, the disruption hypothesis, suggests temporary declines in certain aspects of personality maturation during adolescence as teenagers face new social and biological challenges.
To investigate this, the research team analyzed data from the Trondheim Early Secure Study. In 2007 and 2008, all four-year-olds born in Trondheim, Norway, alongside their parents, were invited to participate in a project examining psychosocial development. Researchers eventually selected just over a thousand participants to attend the first assessment.
This particular analysis focused on data collected from the time the participating children turned 10 years old. Ten was the age when participants started completing self-reported personality tests. In total, the researchers looked at 805 children who provided data at ages 10, 12, 14, or 16. The number of children at individual assessment points ranged from 635 to 704, with girls making up slightly more than half of the group.
The results generally supported the disruption hypothesis. Contrary to the idea of steady maturation, the conscientiousness and agreeableness of participating children decreased from age 12 onward. A closer look at the narrower facets revealed that a drop in self-discipline drove the decline in conscientiousness. Meanwhile, a reduction in compliance and altruism pushed agreeableness downward.
Neuroticism decreased between 10 and 12 years of age in boys and then remained relatively stable. In contrast, girls experienced an increase in neuroticism from age 12 to 16. Examining the specific facets showed that rising anxiety levels fueled this upward trend in girls. Extraversion also decreased between 14 and 16 years of age in both sexes, largely due to a substantial drop in the activity facet.
Openness decreased in girls throughout the study period. In boys, this trait decreased between 10 and 14 years of age and remained relatively stable afterward. “Our results predominantly support the disruption hypothesis, showing declines in conscientiousness and agreeableness across sexes from age 12, with an increase in neuroticism observed solely for girls. The findings further demonstrate that maturation disruptions vary at the facet level, suggesting a complex developmental process,” the study authors concluded.
The study contributes to the scientific understanding of personality development. However, all study participants came from a single city in Norway, meaning findings in other cultures might not be identical. Additionally, the study relied on self-reports from children as young as 10. Younger children are generally less reliable reporters of their own behavior, which could have affected the accuracy of the early assessments.
The paper, “Personality From Age 10 to 16 years. A Four-Wave Cohort Study of Development and Sex Differences in the Big Five and Its Facets,” was authored by Silje Steinsbekk, Lars Wichstrøm, and Tilmann von Soest.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/personality-shifts-during-adolescence-unfold-differently-for-boys-and-girls/
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-
DATE: June 26, 2026 at 09:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Personality shifts during adolescence unfold differently for boys and girls
URL: https://www.psypost.org/personality-shifts-during-adolescence-unfold-differently-for-boys-and-girls/
A longitudinal study examining personality changes between 10 and 16 years of age found that conscientiousness and agreeableness tend to decline from age 12 to 16. Neuroticism increased during the studied period, but only in girls. The paper was published in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
Personality is the relatively stable pattern of thoughts, emotions, motivations, and behaviors that makes each person distinctive. It influences how people perceive situations, interact with others, respond to challenges, and make decisions. Personality develops through a combination of genetic influences, early experiences, social relationships, culture, and life events.
One of the most widely used scientific models of personality is the Big Five model. One trait in this framework, openness to experience, describes curiosity, imagination, creativity, and a willingness to consider new ideas. Conscientiousness refers to being organized, responsible, disciplined, dependable, and focused on achieving goals. Extraversion involves sociability, assertiveness, enthusiasm, energy, and a tendency to seek stimulation from other people.
Agreeableness reflects kindness, cooperation, empathy, trust, and concern for the needs of others. Neuroticism describes a tendency to experience negative emotions such as anxiety, sadness, irritability, and emotional instability. Underneath these broad categories are narrower traits called facets. For example, conscientiousness includes the specific facets of order and self-discipline, while neuroticism includes anxiety and depression.
Study author Silje Steinsbekk and her colleagues explored how these overarching traits and their specific facets change as children mature. They noted two opposing views about the developmental trajectory of personality. One view expects that as children mature, they become more conscientious, agreeable, and emotionally stable. An opposing idea, the disruption hypothesis, suggests temporary declines in certain aspects of personality maturation during adolescence as teenagers face new social and biological challenges.
To investigate this, the research team analyzed data from the Trondheim Early Secure Study. In 2007 and 2008, all four-year-olds born in Trondheim, Norway, alongside their parents, were invited to participate in a project examining psychosocial development. Researchers eventually selected just over a thousand participants to attend the first assessment.
This particular analysis focused on data collected from the time the participating children turned 10 years old. Ten was the age when participants started completing self-reported personality tests. In total, the researchers looked at 805 children who provided data at ages 10, 12, 14, or 16. The number of children at individual assessment points ranged from 635 to 704, with girls making up slightly more than half of the group.
The results generally supported the disruption hypothesis. Contrary to the idea of steady maturation, the conscientiousness and agreeableness of participating children decreased from age 12 onward. A closer look at the narrower facets revealed that a drop in self-discipline drove the decline in conscientiousness. Meanwhile, a reduction in compliance and altruism pushed agreeableness downward.
Neuroticism decreased between 10 and 12 years of age in boys and then remained relatively stable. In contrast, girls experienced an increase in neuroticism from age 12 to 16. Examining the specific facets showed that rising anxiety levels fueled this upward trend in girls. Extraversion also decreased between 14 and 16 years of age in both sexes, largely due to a substantial drop in the activity facet.
Openness decreased in girls throughout the study period. In boys, this trait decreased between 10 and 14 years of age and remained relatively stable afterward. “Our results predominantly support the disruption hypothesis, showing declines in conscientiousness and agreeableness across sexes from age 12, with an increase in neuroticism observed solely for girls. The findings further demonstrate that maturation disruptions vary at the facet level, suggesting a complex developmental process,” the study authors concluded.
The study contributes to the scientific understanding of personality development. However, all study participants came from a single city in Norway, meaning findings in other cultures might not be identical. Additionally, the study relied on self-reports from children as young as 10. Younger children are generally less reliable reporters of their own behavior, which could have affected the accuracy of the early assessments.
The paper, “Personality From Age 10 to 16 years. A Four-Wave Cohort Study of Development and Sex Differences in the Big Five and Its Facets,” was authored by Silje Steinsbekk, Lars Wichstrøm, and Tilmann von Soest.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/personality-shifts-during-adolescence-unfold-differently-for-boys-and-girls/
-------------------------------------------------
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #adolescentdevelopment #BigFivePersonality #neuroticism #conscientiousness #agreeableness #openness #personalityfacets #genderdifferences #psychologyresearch #developmentalpsychology
-
DATE: June 23, 2026 at 02:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Positive romantic relationships ease existential dread by boosting meaning in life
A recent study published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships suggests that focusing on the positive aspects of a romantic partnership can reduce a person’s underlying anxiety about death. The researchers found that this effect occurs because healthy romantic bonds tend to enhance an individual’s sense of meaning in life. Interestingly, this protective psychological mechanism was observed specifically in female participants, providing new evidence on how men and women might process relationship intimacy and existential fears differently.
To understand the psychological connection between love and death, it helps to look at a concept known as terror management theory. This framework proposes that humans possess a unique awareness of their own mortality, which creates a background hum of existential anxiety. To keep this fear from becoming overwhelming, people rely on psychological buffers to protect themselves from distress. These buffers typically include adopting cultural belief systems, building self-esteem, and forming close personal relationships.
While psychologists know that strong relationships help people manage their fears about mortality, the exact ways these bonds provide comfort remain somewhat of a puzzle. The authors of the current study proposed that love might shield people from existential dread by boosting their overall sense of meaning in life. Meaning in life refers to the feeling that one’s existence has purpose, significance, and a sense of coherence.
Zhechen Wang, an associate research fellow in the Department of Psychology at the School of Social Development and Public Policy at Fudan University in Shanghai, noted multiple inspirations for the project.
“There were several motivations behind this research,” Wang said. “First, on a personal level, our first author, Shiyun Shen, had recently gotten married at the time, and her experience of how a romantic relationship can affect people’s psychological states made us interested in examining this effect more systematically.”
Pop culture also played a role in sparking the research questions.
“Moreover, we were struck by how often in films and literature romantic relationships had been portrayed as a source of comfort in the face of death,” Wang said. “For instance, in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1956), the male protagonist embraced his deceased lover tightly when he himself died. Also, in Titanic (1997), out of love, the male protagonist chose to give the chance of survival to his lover and accepted his own death calmly. These examples encouraged us to think more seriously about whether and how romantic relationships might help people cope with death anxieties.”
In addition to these cultural observations, the researchers noticed missing elements in existing psychological literature. A related concept is death-thought accessibility, which measures how easily ideas about death come to the forefront of a person’s mind. When someone’s psychological buffers are weak, their death-thought accessibility tends to increase, even if they are not actively worrying about dying.
“Second, on an academic level, we also saw a few theoretical gaps in the literature,” Wang explained. “Specifically, previous research based on terror management theory has reported that mortality salience (MS, i.e., reminders of one’s own mortality) can increase people’s desire to establish and maintain romantic relationships. However, the reverse hypothesis, namely, whether romantic relationships can directly reduce death anxiety, has rarely been examined.”
Wang added that the field needed more focus on healthy relationship dynamics.
“Moreover, prior work has predominantly focused on the impact of negative romantic relationships (or the loss of romantic relationships) on death-thought accessibility (DTA, i.e., how easily death-related thoughts come into mind),” Wang said. “However, the opposite side, namely, the impact of positive romantic relationships on DTA, has received far less attention.”
“In a related vein, the positive psychology movement has also criticized psychology’s disproportionate focus on negative aspects and called for greater attention to the positive aspects of human life,” Wang noted. “Therefore, in our research, we aimed to examine the effect of positive romantic relationships on DTA and further explored meaning in life as a potential underlying mechanism.”
To test these ideas, the scientists conducted three separate experiments with adults in China who were currently in a romantic relationship or married. In the first study, the sample included 138 participants. The scientists randomly assigned these individuals to either a positive relationship group or a control group.
Participants in the relationship group were asked to close their eyes and visualize their partner, paying attention to their appearance and voice. They then wrote down three positive characteristics of their relationship and described an ideal, fulfilling future life together. Those in the control group completed a similar exercise, but they focused on their favorite television shows instead of a romantic partner.
After the visualization exercise, the authors measured the participants’ death-thought accessibility. They showed the participants an ambiguous picture that could look like a woman looking in a vanity mirror or a human skull. Participants then listed ten words that came to mind while looking at the image. Independent coders reviewed the lists and counted how many death-related words, such as “skeleton” or “ghost,” each person wrote down.
The findings from the first study showed that the positive relationship exercise successfully reduced death-thought accessibility. Participants who imagined a happy future with their partner produced fewer death-related words than those who thought about television shows.
In the second study, the researchers recruited 130 participants to see if the same relationship exercise would influence their sense of meaning in life. The scientists used a questionnaire that measures two different aspects of meaning, which are the presence of meaning and the search for meaning. The presence of meaning relates to whether someone currently feels their life has purpose. The search for meaning reflects how actively they are looking for that purpose.
The results from the second experiment indicated that participants in the romantic relationship group reported a higher presence of meaning in life compared to the control group. The visualization exercise did not change their scores for the search for meaning. This suggests that reflecting on a positive romantic bond helps people feel that they already have a meaningful life, rather than making them want to seek out new sources of meaning.
For the third study, the scientists wanted to bring these concepts together and test for gender differences. They recruited a larger, gender-balanced sample of 473 participants. The procedure mirrored the previous experiments, but it included measures for both meaning in life and death-thought accessibility. To measure death thoughts more thoroughly, participants viewed two ambiguous pictures and listed a total of twenty words.
The third experiment successfully replicated the earlier results. Thinking about a positive romantic relationship increased the participants’ presence of meaning in life and decreased the number of death-related words they generated. The researchers then used statistical models to see if the increase in meaning in life was the specific factor that caused the drop in death thoughts.
This statistical analysis showed a notable divide between male and female participants. For women, the enhanced sense of meaning in life entirely explained the reduction in death-thought accessibility. For men, reflecting on the relationship did not show the same protective chain reaction through meaning in life.
“The gender difference surprised us most,” Wang told PsyPost. “Specifically, the ‘positive romantic relationships enhanced meaning in life reduced DTA’ model was significant among female, but not among male participants.”
To understand this divide, the researchers looked at various frameworks.
“To interpret this finding, we drew on several theoretical perspectives,” Wang explained. “First, according to the social role theory, women may be more likely than men to develop an interdependent self-construal and therefore may place greater emphasis on establishing and maintaining romantic relationships.”
Biological and evolutionary frameworks also offer potential explanations.
“Second, from an evolutionary psychology perspective, women’s historically greater parental investment and caregiving responsibilities may have made them more sensitive to social bonds and relational stability,” Wang said. “Third, within the framework of terror management theory, men and women may rely on somewhat different buffers against death anxiety: men may rely more on worldview defense and self-esteem striving, whereas women may rely more on romantic relationships.”
When looking at the overall statistics across the experiments, the researchers measured the strength of these outcomes using a statistical tool known as Cohen’s d. This tool helps scientists determine if a finding is small, medium, or large in scale.
“In terms of effect size, across three experimental studies, our research revealed that the effects were generally in the small-to-medium range,” Wang said. “Specifically, the effect size of positive romantic relationship manipulation on reducing DTA was d = 0.44 in Study 1 and d = 0.19 in Study 3. Its effect size on increasing the presence of meaning in life was d = 0.41 in Study 2 and d = 0.26 in Study 3.”
While these numbers are not massive, they still hold real-world relevance.
“These effects should not be interpreted as large or dramatic,” Wang cautioned. “Rather, they suggest that even a brief reflection on the positive aspects of one’s romantic relationship can bring about measurable changes in meaning in life and DTA. Practically, this is meaningful because romantic relationships are a common part of everyday life, and small psychological benefits may accumulate over time.”
In terms of broader implications, the scientists hope their findings resonate with modern society, especially in their home country.
“In short, although it may sound somewhat cliché, the main takeaway from our findings is that romantic relationships can be existentially meaningful and beneficial,” Wang said. “We think this message may be particularly relevant in the Chinese context. In recent years, many Chinese people seem to become less willing to date, marry, let alone have children.”
The researchers acknowledge the economic and social barriers driving this shift.
“Of course, social structural factors such as employment pressure, housing costs, and education competition may be major concerns behind this trend,” Wang noted. “However, our findings suggest that romantic relationships may also provide certain psychological benefits, such as enhancing one’s sense of meaning in life. In other words, although dating and marriage may bring new forms of stress, they may also bring important psychological resources.”
While these experiments offer helpful insights, readers should be careful not to jump to extreme conclusions. One potential misinterpretation is the idea that just being in a relationship automatically reduces a person’s fear of death, or that single people are inherently unprotected. Another misinterpretation involves the difference between male and female responses.
“Some people may interpret our findings as suggesting that positive romantic relationships are not important for men,” Wang explained. “This interpretation would be oversimplified and inappropriate. We argue that positive romantic relationships are also of great importance to men, but their effects may take different forms and work through different mechanisms.”
Different outcomes for men might show up in other areas of health and well-being.
“For example, previous research has shown that men may benefit from marriage in terms of physical health and mortality outcomes,” Wang said. “Therefore, our findings do not mean that positive romantic relationships do not matter for men. Rather, they suggest that the specific mechanism examined in our study may be more salient among women than among men.”
Moving forward, the scientists hope to explore other potential mechanisms that might explain how relationships protect against anxiety.
“For this line of research, we see several important next steps,” Wang said. “First, future research should further examine the gender difference observed in our research and investigate the mechanisms that may explain this difference. Second, it would be beneficial to consider other potentially important factors, such as marital status, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and other relational or demographic variables.”
The scientists also plan to look beyond meaning in life to see what else buffers mortality fears.
“Third, future research could examine other potential mechanisms through which positive romantic relationships affect death anxiety, such as attachment-based felt security, relationship-contingent self-esteem, and relational worldview defense,” Wang noted. “By doing so, we hope to develop a more comprehensive understanding of when, how, and for whom positive romantic relationships help people cope with existential concerns.”
The authors even hid a small pop culture reference in the publication itself.
“The title, Love, Death, and Reason for Living, is a small tribute to the science fiction anthology series, Love, Death, and Robots,” Wang shared.
The study, “Love, Death, and Reason for Living: Positive Romantic Relationships Reduce Death Anxiety Through Meaning in Life Among Females,” was authored by Shiyun Shen, Shijin Sun, Wei Wei, and Zhechen Wang.
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-
DATE: June 23, 2026 at 02:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Positive romantic relationships ease existential dread by boosting meaning in life
A recent study published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships suggests that focusing on the positive aspects of a romantic partnership can reduce a person’s underlying anxiety about death. The researchers found that this effect occurs because healthy romantic bonds tend to enhance an individual’s sense of meaning in life. Interestingly, this protective psychological mechanism was observed specifically in female participants, providing new evidence on how men and women might process relationship intimacy and existential fears differently.
To understand the psychological connection between love and death, it helps to look at a concept known as terror management theory. This framework proposes that humans possess a unique awareness of their own mortality, which creates a background hum of existential anxiety. To keep this fear from becoming overwhelming, people rely on psychological buffers to protect themselves from distress. These buffers typically include adopting cultural belief systems, building self-esteem, and forming close personal relationships.
While psychologists know that strong relationships help people manage their fears about mortality, the exact ways these bonds provide comfort remain somewhat of a puzzle. The authors of the current study proposed that love might shield people from existential dread by boosting their overall sense of meaning in life. Meaning in life refers to the feeling that one’s existence has purpose, significance, and a sense of coherence.
Zhechen Wang, an associate research fellow in the Department of Psychology at the School of Social Development and Public Policy at Fudan University in Shanghai, noted multiple inspirations for the project.
“There were several motivations behind this research,” Wang said. “First, on a personal level, our first author, Shiyun Shen, had recently gotten married at the time, and her experience of how a romantic relationship can affect people’s psychological states made us interested in examining this effect more systematically.”
Pop culture also played a role in sparking the research questions.
“Moreover, we were struck by how often in films and literature romantic relationships had been portrayed as a source of comfort in the face of death,” Wang said. “For instance, in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1956), the male protagonist embraced his deceased lover tightly when he himself died. Also, in Titanic (1997), out of love, the male protagonist chose to give the chance of survival to his lover and accepted his own death calmly. These examples encouraged us to think more seriously about whether and how romantic relationships might help people cope with death anxieties.”
In addition to these cultural observations, the researchers noticed missing elements in existing psychological literature. A related concept is death-thought accessibility, which measures how easily ideas about death come to the forefront of a person’s mind. When someone’s psychological buffers are weak, their death-thought accessibility tends to increase, even if they are not actively worrying about dying.
“Second, on an academic level, we also saw a few theoretical gaps in the literature,” Wang explained. “Specifically, previous research based on terror management theory has reported that mortality salience (MS, i.e., reminders of one’s own mortality) can increase people’s desire to establish and maintain romantic relationships. However, the reverse hypothesis, namely, whether romantic relationships can directly reduce death anxiety, has rarely been examined.”
Wang added that the field needed more focus on healthy relationship dynamics.
“Moreover, prior work has predominantly focused on the impact of negative romantic relationships (or the loss of romantic relationships) on death-thought accessibility (DTA, i.e., how easily death-related thoughts come into mind),” Wang said. “However, the opposite side, namely, the impact of positive romantic relationships on DTA, has received far less attention.”
“In a related vein, the positive psychology movement has also criticized psychology’s disproportionate focus on negative aspects and called for greater attention to the positive aspects of human life,” Wang noted. “Therefore, in our research, we aimed to examine the effect of positive romantic relationships on DTA and further explored meaning in life as a potential underlying mechanism.”
To test these ideas, the scientists conducted three separate experiments with adults in China who were currently in a romantic relationship or married. In the first study, the sample included 138 participants. The scientists randomly assigned these individuals to either a positive relationship group or a control group.
Participants in the relationship group were asked to close their eyes and visualize their partner, paying attention to their appearance and voice. They then wrote down three positive characteristics of their relationship and described an ideal, fulfilling future life together. Those in the control group completed a similar exercise, but they focused on their favorite television shows instead of a romantic partner.
After the visualization exercise, the authors measured the participants’ death-thought accessibility. They showed the participants an ambiguous picture that could look like a woman looking in a vanity mirror or a human skull. Participants then listed ten words that came to mind while looking at the image. Independent coders reviewed the lists and counted how many death-related words, such as “skeleton” or “ghost,” each person wrote down.
The findings from the first study showed that the positive relationship exercise successfully reduced death-thought accessibility. Participants who imagined a happy future with their partner produced fewer death-related words than those who thought about television shows.
In the second study, the researchers recruited 130 participants to see if the same relationship exercise would influence their sense of meaning in life. The scientists used a questionnaire that measures two different aspects of meaning, which are the presence of meaning and the search for meaning. The presence of meaning relates to whether someone currently feels their life has purpose. The search for meaning reflects how actively they are looking for that purpose.
The results from the second experiment indicated that participants in the romantic relationship group reported a higher presence of meaning in life compared to the control group. The visualization exercise did not change their scores for the search for meaning. This suggests that reflecting on a positive romantic bond helps people feel that they already have a meaningful life, rather than making them want to seek out new sources of meaning.
For the third study, the scientists wanted to bring these concepts together and test for gender differences. They recruited a larger, gender-balanced sample of 473 participants. The procedure mirrored the previous experiments, but it included measures for both meaning in life and death-thought accessibility. To measure death thoughts more thoroughly, participants viewed two ambiguous pictures and listed a total of twenty words.
The third experiment successfully replicated the earlier results. Thinking about a positive romantic relationship increased the participants’ presence of meaning in life and decreased the number of death-related words they generated. The researchers then used statistical models to see if the increase in meaning in life was the specific factor that caused the drop in death thoughts.
This statistical analysis showed a notable divide between male and female participants. For women, the enhanced sense of meaning in life entirely explained the reduction in death-thought accessibility. For men, reflecting on the relationship did not show the same protective chain reaction through meaning in life.
“The gender difference surprised us most,” Wang told PsyPost. “Specifically, the ‘positive romantic relationships enhanced meaning in life reduced DTA’ model was significant among female, but not among male participants.”
To understand this divide, the researchers looked at various frameworks.
“To interpret this finding, we drew on several theoretical perspectives,” Wang explained. “First, according to the social role theory, women may be more likely than men to develop an interdependent self-construal and therefore may place greater emphasis on establishing and maintaining romantic relationships.”
Biological and evolutionary frameworks also offer potential explanations.
“Second, from an evolutionary psychology perspective, women’s historically greater parental investment and caregiving responsibilities may have made them more sensitive to social bonds and relational stability,” Wang said. “Third, within the framework of terror management theory, men and women may rely on somewhat different buffers against death anxiety: men may rely more on worldview defense and self-esteem striving, whereas women may rely more on romantic relationships.”
When looking at the overall statistics across the experiments, the researchers measured the strength of these outcomes using a statistical tool known as Cohen’s d. This tool helps scientists determine if a finding is small, medium, or large in scale.
“In terms of effect size, across three experimental studies, our research revealed that the effects were generally in the small-to-medium range,” Wang said. “Specifically, the effect size of positive romantic relationship manipulation on reducing DTA was d = 0.44 in Study 1 and d = 0.19 in Study 3. Its effect size on increasing the presence of meaning in life was d = 0.41 in Study 2 and d = 0.26 in Study 3.”
While these numbers are not massive, they still hold real-world relevance.
“These effects should not be interpreted as large or dramatic,” Wang cautioned. “Rather, they suggest that even a brief reflection on the positive aspects of one’s romantic relationship can bring about measurable changes in meaning in life and DTA. Practically, this is meaningful because romantic relationships are a common part of everyday life, and small psychological benefits may accumulate over time.”
In terms of broader implications, the scientists hope their findings resonate with modern society, especially in their home country.
“In short, although it may sound somewhat cliché, the main takeaway from our findings is that romantic relationships can be existentially meaningful and beneficial,” Wang said. “We think this message may be particularly relevant in the Chinese context. In recent years, many Chinese people seem to become less willing to date, marry, let alone have children.”
The researchers acknowledge the economic and social barriers driving this shift.
“Of course, social structural factors such as employment pressure, housing costs, and education competition may be major concerns behind this trend,” Wang noted. “However, our findings suggest that romantic relationships may also provide certain psychological benefits, such as enhancing one’s sense of meaning in life. In other words, although dating and marriage may bring new forms of stress, they may also bring important psychological resources.”
While these experiments offer helpful insights, readers should be careful not to jump to extreme conclusions. One potential misinterpretation is the idea that just being in a relationship automatically reduces a person’s fear of death, or that single people are inherently unprotected. Another misinterpretation involves the difference between male and female responses.
“Some people may interpret our findings as suggesting that positive romantic relationships are not important for men,” Wang explained. “This interpretation would be oversimplified and inappropriate. We argue that positive romantic relationships are also of great importance to men, but their effects may take different forms and work through different mechanisms.”
Different outcomes for men might show up in other areas of health and well-being.
“For example, previous research has shown that men may benefit from marriage in terms of physical health and mortality outcomes,” Wang said. “Therefore, our findings do not mean that positive romantic relationships do not matter for men. Rather, they suggest that the specific mechanism examined in our study may be more salient among women than among men.”
Moving forward, the scientists hope to explore other potential mechanisms that might explain how relationships protect against anxiety.
“For this line of research, we see several important next steps,” Wang said. “First, future research should further examine the gender difference observed in our research and investigate the mechanisms that may explain this difference. Second, it would be beneficial to consider other potentially important factors, such as marital status, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and other relational or demographic variables.”
The scientists also plan to look beyond meaning in life to see what else buffers mortality fears.
“Third, future research could examine other potential mechanisms through which positive romantic relationships affect death anxiety, such as attachment-based felt security, relationship-contingent self-esteem, and relational worldview defense,” Wang noted. “By doing so, we hope to develop a more comprehensive understanding of when, how, and for whom positive romantic relationships help people cope with existential concerns.”
The authors even hid a small pop culture reference in the publication itself.
“The title, Love, Death, and Reason for Living, is a small tribute to the science fiction anthology series, Love, Death, and Robots,” Wang shared.
The study, “Love, Death, and Reason for Living: Positive Romantic Relationships Reduce Death Anxiety Through Meaning in Life Among Females,” was authored by Shiyun Shen, Shijin Sun, Wei Wei, and Zhechen Wang.
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-
DATE: June 19, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Vulnerable narcissism predicts revenge-seeking behaviors in women
URL: https://www.psypost.org/the-hidden-psychology-of-female-revenge/
Humans have an enduring history of seeking retaliation when they feel wronged or humiliated. New research suggests that women who harbor hidden insecurities and a heightened sensitivity to criticism may justify taking revenge by mentally detaching from their own ethical standards. The findings were published in The International Journal of Indian Psychology.
Psychologists generally divide narcissism into two distinct categories. Grandiose narcissism involves a loud, visible desire for dominance, an inflated sense of superiority, and a profound lack of empathy. Vulnerable narcissism is a quieter trait marked by deep self-doubt, defensiveness, and a persistent feeling that one is chronically underappreciated.
People with vulnerable narcissistic traits usually internalize perceived social slights. Their fragile self-esteem makes them highly reactive to interpersonal rejection or failure. Because they lack the outward confidence to directly confront those who upset them, they often harbor silent resentment instead.
To avoid the guilt that typically accompanies unethical behavior, people sometimes use a psychological mechanism called moral disengagement. This process involves a set of cognitive gymnastics that allows a person to justify harmful actions while preserving a positive self-image. An individual might reframe retaliation as serving a higher purpose or teaching someone a needed lesson.
Other forms of moral disengagement include blaming the target of the aggression or using neutral language to describe malicious acts. By disconnecting from their own moral compass, people can lash out without feeling remorse. This mental distancing is highly relevant when individuals rely on forms of aggression that damage relationships rather than physical bodies.
Cultural and societal expectations heavily influence how aggression is expressed in everyday life. Boys are frequently socialized to resolve disputes through direct physical or verbal confrontation. Girls are generally taught to prioritize social harmony and are actively discouraged from showing overt hostility.
Because of these societal norms, women may be more inclined to use covert strategies when they wish to retaliate. These tactics can encompass social exclusion, spreading rumors, cyberbullying, or systematically damaging an adversary’s reputation. Such actions require a specific psychological environment to thrive.
Vrishti Barwal, a researcher at the Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences, directed the investigation into these behavioral dynamics. Along with her colleague Roopali Sharma, Barwal designed a study to explore how these personality and cognitive variables interact. They focused entirely on female participants to better understand female-patterned aggression.
Most prior research on retaliation has focused almost exclusively on men and visible physical aggression. The researchers wanted to fill an academic gap regarding how women experience and express vengeance. They theorized that vulnerable narcissism and moral disengagement work in tandem to predict retaliatory behavior in women.
To evaluate this concept, Barwal and Sharma recruited a sample of 225 young women between the ages of 19 and 30. The participants were mostly university students or young professionals. The researchers asked these individuals to complete a comprehensive online survey.
The researchers excluded anyone with a history of severe psychiatric disorders to maintain an accurate psychological baseline among the participants. The team screened out these clinical populations to focus on typical, everyday behavioral differences rather than severe psychopathology. The survey relied on three previously validated and standardized measuring tools.
One questionnaire assessed maladaptive covert narcissism by asking participants to rate statements regarding their sensitivity, emotional fragility, and overall insecurity. A second scale measured the participants’ propensity to mentally disengage from societal ethical standards. This tool looked at how strongly the test subjects relied on cognitive tricks like the displacement of responsibility or the dehumanization of others.
A high score on the second scale indicated a strong ability to shut off internal moral alarms. The third questionnaire gauged the participants’ inclinations toward revenge. This vengeance scale asked respondents to indicate their level of agreement with statements regarding retribution and holding onto grudges over an extended period. The researchers then used statistical software to analyze the scores and look for patterns.
On average, the participants scored moderately to highly on both the covert narcissism and vengeance scales. The scores on the moral disengagement scale were slightly lower but still varied enough to provide strong data for the evaluation. The researchers then looked at how these three variables interacted with one another in the statistical models.
The results revealed a positive correlation between vulnerable narcissism and revenge-seeking. Women who scored high in traits like emotional fragility and hypersensitivity also reported a stronger desire to retaliate against those who slighted them. These individuals admitted to frequently harboring grudges after a perceived wrong.
The data also highlighted a strong link between narcissistic traits and moral disengagement. Highly vulnerable participants were more prone to justifying unethical actions and shifting the blame away from themselves in their survey answers. They easily decoupled their internal moral standards from their retaliatory thoughts.
A sophisticated statistical analysis showed that moral disengagement acts as a bridge between an insecure ego and vengeful actions. In psychological terms, moral disengagement partially mediated the relationship between a person’s covert narcissism and their desire to inflict harm. Vulnerable narcissism predicted a tendency to mentally excuse bad behavior, and this habitual mental excusing then predicted higher scores on the vengeance scale.
A heightened sensitivity to criticism often coincides with an emotional desire to strike back. The ability to mentally distance oneself from the consequences of that retaliation makes the vengeful behavior palatable. This dual psychological process helps clarify why certain individuals comfortably rely on covert aggression to settle interpersonal scores.
The regression models in the study demonstrated that these combined factors accounted for nearly nine percent of the variance in revenge-seeking behavior. While this percentage might seem small in other fields, it establishes a reliable mathematical relationship in behavioral psychology. Human actions are shaped by numerous variables, so identifying specific predictors is extremely helpful for mental health practitioners.
Knowing how these cognitive structures operate opens up possibilities for therapeutic intervention. Psychologists could help individuals prone to vengeance by directly addressing their moral disengagement habits. Therapists might use cognitive behavioral tools to challenge these internal justifications, eventually helping patients develop healthier ways to process social disrespect.
The study contains several caveats that limit how broadly these initial conclusions can be universally applied. The researchers used a cross-sectional design, meaning they gathered all their survey data at a single point in time. This type of methodology cannot establish a definitive sequence of events between the measured traits.
It remains possible that the emotional desire for revenge prompts someone to morally disengage, rather than the other way around. The sample was also restricted to a specific demographic of younger, educated, English-speaking women from a particular geographic region. Because human development spans decades, attitudes toward forgiveness versus retribution often evolve as people age and gain life experience.
The research relied completely on self-reported questionnaires, which is standard but comes with built-in limitations. People notoriously struggle to answer questions about their own character flaws with complete honesty. Participants may have downplayed their true vengeful thoughts to make themselves look better, creating a social desirability bias.
Future investigations should explore how other complex emotions tie into these psychological and behavioral patterns. Feelings of deep shame, empathy deficits, and chronic emotional distress could all theoretically play a role in how a person manages interpersonal conflict. Tracking participants over a span of several years could also help researchers untangle the exact timeline of vengeful ideation.
The study, “Vulnerable Narcissism and Moral Disengagement in Revenge-Seeking Behaviours Among Women,” was authored by Vrishti Barwal and Roopali Sharma.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/the-hidden-psychology-of-female-revenge/
-------------------------------------------------
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-
DATE: June 19, 2026 at 12:00PM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Vulnerable narcissism predicts revenge-seeking behaviors in women
URL: https://www.psypost.org/the-hidden-psychology-of-female-revenge/
Humans have an enduring history of seeking retaliation when they feel wronged or humiliated. New research suggests that women who harbor hidden insecurities and a heightened sensitivity to criticism may justify taking revenge by mentally detaching from their own ethical standards. The findings were published in The International Journal of Indian Psychology.
Psychologists generally divide narcissism into two distinct categories. Grandiose narcissism involves a loud, visible desire for dominance, an inflated sense of superiority, and a profound lack of empathy. Vulnerable narcissism is a quieter trait marked by deep self-doubt, defensiveness, and a persistent feeling that one is chronically underappreciated.
People with vulnerable narcissistic traits usually internalize perceived social slights. Their fragile self-esteem makes them highly reactive to interpersonal rejection or failure. Because they lack the outward confidence to directly confront those who upset them, they often harbor silent resentment instead.
To avoid the guilt that typically accompanies unethical behavior, people sometimes use a psychological mechanism called moral disengagement. This process involves a set of cognitive gymnastics that allows a person to justify harmful actions while preserving a positive self-image. An individual might reframe retaliation as serving a higher purpose or teaching someone a needed lesson.
Other forms of moral disengagement include blaming the target of the aggression or using neutral language to describe malicious acts. By disconnecting from their own moral compass, people can lash out without feeling remorse. This mental distancing is highly relevant when individuals rely on forms of aggression that damage relationships rather than physical bodies.
Cultural and societal expectations heavily influence how aggression is expressed in everyday life. Boys are frequently socialized to resolve disputes through direct physical or verbal confrontation. Girls are generally taught to prioritize social harmony and are actively discouraged from showing overt hostility.
Because of these societal norms, women may be more inclined to use covert strategies when they wish to retaliate. These tactics can encompass social exclusion, spreading rumors, cyberbullying, or systematically damaging an adversary’s reputation. Such actions require a specific psychological environment to thrive.
Vrishti Barwal, a researcher at the Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences, directed the investigation into these behavioral dynamics. Along with her colleague Roopali Sharma, Barwal designed a study to explore how these personality and cognitive variables interact. They focused entirely on female participants to better understand female-patterned aggression.
Most prior research on retaliation has focused almost exclusively on men and visible physical aggression. The researchers wanted to fill an academic gap regarding how women experience and express vengeance. They theorized that vulnerable narcissism and moral disengagement work in tandem to predict retaliatory behavior in women.
To evaluate this concept, Barwal and Sharma recruited a sample of 225 young women between the ages of 19 and 30. The participants were mostly university students or young professionals. The researchers asked these individuals to complete a comprehensive online survey.
The researchers excluded anyone with a history of severe psychiatric disorders to maintain an accurate psychological baseline among the participants. The team screened out these clinical populations to focus on typical, everyday behavioral differences rather than severe psychopathology. The survey relied on three previously validated and standardized measuring tools.
One questionnaire assessed maladaptive covert narcissism by asking participants to rate statements regarding their sensitivity, emotional fragility, and overall insecurity. A second scale measured the participants’ propensity to mentally disengage from societal ethical standards. This tool looked at how strongly the test subjects relied on cognitive tricks like the displacement of responsibility or the dehumanization of others.
A high score on the second scale indicated a strong ability to shut off internal moral alarms. The third questionnaire gauged the participants’ inclinations toward revenge. This vengeance scale asked respondents to indicate their level of agreement with statements regarding retribution and holding onto grudges over an extended period. The researchers then used statistical software to analyze the scores and look for patterns.
On average, the participants scored moderately to highly on both the covert narcissism and vengeance scales. The scores on the moral disengagement scale were slightly lower but still varied enough to provide strong data for the evaluation. The researchers then looked at how these three variables interacted with one another in the statistical models.
The results revealed a positive correlation between vulnerable narcissism and revenge-seeking. Women who scored high in traits like emotional fragility and hypersensitivity also reported a stronger desire to retaliate against those who slighted them. These individuals admitted to frequently harboring grudges after a perceived wrong.
The data also highlighted a strong link between narcissistic traits and moral disengagement. Highly vulnerable participants were more prone to justifying unethical actions and shifting the blame away from themselves in their survey answers. They easily decoupled their internal moral standards from their retaliatory thoughts.
A sophisticated statistical analysis showed that moral disengagement acts as a bridge between an insecure ego and vengeful actions. In psychological terms, moral disengagement partially mediated the relationship between a person’s covert narcissism and their desire to inflict harm. Vulnerable narcissism predicted a tendency to mentally excuse bad behavior, and this habitual mental excusing then predicted higher scores on the vengeance scale.
A heightened sensitivity to criticism often coincides with an emotional desire to strike back. The ability to mentally distance oneself from the consequences of that retaliation makes the vengeful behavior palatable. This dual psychological process helps clarify why certain individuals comfortably rely on covert aggression to settle interpersonal scores.
The regression models in the study demonstrated that these combined factors accounted for nearly nine percent of the variance in revenge-seeking behavior. While this percentage might seem small in other fields, it establishes a reliable mathematical relationship in behavioral psychology. Human actions are shaped by numerous variables, so identifying specific predictors is extremely helpful for mental health practitioners.
Knowing how these cognitive structures operate opens up possibilities for therapeutic intervention. Psychologists could help individuals prone to vengeance by directly addressing their moral disengagement habits. Therapists might use cognitive behavioral tools to challenge these internal justifications, eventually helping patients develop healthier ways to process social disrespect.
The study contains several caveats that limit how broadly these initial conclusions can be universally applied. The researchers used a cross-sectional design, meaning they gathered all their survey data at a single point in time. This type of methodology cannot establish a definitive sequence of events between the measured traits.
It remains possible that the emotional desire for revenge prompts someone to morally disengage, rather than the other way around. The sample was also restricted to a specific demographic of younger, educated, English-speaking women from a particular geographic region. Because human development spans decades, attitudes toward forgiveness versus retribution often evolve as people age and gain life experience.
The research relied completely on self-reported questionnaires, which is standard but comes with built-in limitations. People notoriously struggle to answer questions about their own character flaws with complete honesty. Participants may have downplayed their true vengeful thoughts to make themselves look better, creating a social desirability bias.
Future investigations should explore how other complex emotions tie into these psychological and behavioral patterns. Feelings of deep shame, empathy deficits, and chronic emotional distress could all theoretically play a role in how a person manages interpersonal conflict. Tracking participants over a span of several years could also help researchers untangle the exact timeline of vengeful ideation.
The study, “Vulnerable Narcissism and Moral Disengagement in Revenge-Seeking Behaviours Among Women,” was authored by Vrishti Barwal and Roopali Sharma.
URL: https://www.psypost.org/the-hidden-psychology-of-female-revenge/
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-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #VulnerableNarcissism #RevengeSeeking #WomenPsychology #MoralDisengagement #CovertAggression #NarcissismResearch #PsychologyOfRetribution #GenderDifferences #EmotionalSensitivity #PsychHealthInsights
-
DATE: June 16, 2026 at 07:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Men who financially provide for female friends are more likely to view those friendships as mating opportunities
Men who were more romantically or sexually interested in their female friends tended to pay for more shared expenses, and women read this behavior as a sign of mating interest, according to research published in Evolution & Human Behavior.
Cross-sex friendships are often described as “just friends” relationships, but they can involve attraction, romantic possibility, or sexual interest. Many people report experiencing attraction within cross-sex friendships, and many romantic relationships begin as friendships. This raises an important question: if mating interest sometimes exists within friendships, how is that interest expressed or detected?
Ryan T. Dobson and colleagues examined whether financial provisioning, such as paying for more of a shared bill, might operate as a courtship behavior in cross-sex friendships. Their work was guided by theories suggesting that men, more than women, may use displays of resources or generosity to signal romantic or sexual interest, partly because women have historically placed greater importance on a partner’s willingness and ability to invest resources. The researchers also tested an alternative explanation: perhaps financial provisioning reflects how valuable or high-quality people perceive the friendship to be, rather than mating interest.
This research included 581 undergraduate students from a southwestern university in the United States. Participants completed an anonymous online survey during the spring 2024, fall 2024, and spring 2025 semesters. Participants who failed data-quality checks or reported being asexual or homosexual were excluded from analyses given the study focused on heterosexual cross-sex friendship dynamics. The final sample was mostly female, with an average age of 21.3 years.
Participants answered questions about their closest and second-closest cross-sex friends, excluding current romantic partners and family members. They completed an 11-item measure of their own romantic and sexual interest in each friend, a three-item measure of how much they thought each friend was interested in them, a bill-paying item using a 1-to-7 scale where higher scores meant the participant paid more, and an eight-item friendship-quality measure using a 1-to-7 agreement scale.
Because participants reported on two friends, the researchers could test both between-person effects, such as whether some men generally pay more across friendships, and within-person effects, such as whether a man pays more for the specific female friend he is more attracted to.
Dobson and colleagues found that men and women both reported a sex-differentiated pattern in bill paying. Men said they paid for more of the bill with female friends, and women said their male friends paid for more of the bill with them. This replicated earlier work suggesting that financial provisioning is more common from men toward women in cross-sex friendships.
The key findings supported the idea that financial provisioning can function as a courtship cue in friendship. Men who reported greater overall mating interest in their female friends also reported paying for more of the bill. This pattern did not appear among women in the same way; women’s mating interest did not predict greater financial provisioning, and women who were more interested in their male friends actually reported paying less.
Friendship quality also did not predict financial provisioning. Participants who viewed a cross-sex friendship as more supportive, enjoyable, emotionally close, valuable, or difficult to replace were not more likely to pay a larger share of expenses, providing no support for the alternative hypothesis.
Women also seemed to interpret men’s financial provisioning as a sign of interest. Women whose male friends paid more of the bill perceived those male friends as more interested in mating with them. Men, however, did not show the same pattern when female friends paid more.
Importantly, the effects were mainly between-person rather than within-person: the findings did not show that the same man pays more for the particular female friend he likes most. Instead, some men were more inclined than others to view cross-sex friendships as mating opportunities and to pay more across those friendships.
Of note is that this study was cross-sectional and relied on self-report, so it cannot prove that men intentionally paid more to signal mating interest or that women inferred interest because of the payment behavior. The sample involved young adults from a university setting, so the findings may not generalize to older adults or to different cultural contexts.
Overall, the findings suggest that cross-sex friendships are not equally platonic for everyone and that financial generosity may be one way mating interest is expressed and perceived within some male-female friendships.
The research, “Courtship in cross-sex friendship: novel tests of male financial provisioning as a signal and cue of mating interest,” was authored by Ryan T. Dobson, William Costello, and David M.G. Lewis.
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #CrossSexFriendship #CourtshipSignals #FinancialProvisioning #MatingInterest #GenderDifferences #EvolutionaryPsychology #RomanticInterest #SocialPerception #FriendshipDynamics #BehavioralSignals
-
DATE: June 16, 2026 at 07:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Men who financially provide for female friends are more likely to view those friendships as mating opportunities
Men who were more romantically or sexually interested in their female friends tended to pay for more shared expenses, and women read this behavior as a sign of mating interest, according to research published in Evolution & Human Behavior.
Cross-sex friendships are often described as “just friends” relationships, but they can involve attraction, romantic possibility, or sexual interest. Many people report experiencing attraction within cross-sex friendships, and many romantic relationships begin as friendships. This raises an important question: if mating interest sometimes exists within friendships, how is that interest expressed or detected?
Ryan T. Dobson and colleagues examined whether financial provisioning, such as paying for more of a shared bill, might operate as a courtship behavior in cross-sex friendships. Their work was guided by theories suggesting that men, more than women, may use displays of resources or generosity to signal romantic or sexual interest, partly because women have historically placed greater importance on a partner’s willingness and ability to invest resources. The researchers also tested an alternative explanation: perhaps financial provisioning reflects how valuable or high-quality people perceive the friendship to be, rather than mating interest.
This research included 581 undergraduate students from a southwestern university in the United States. Participants completed an anonymous online survey during the spring 2024, fall 2024, and spring 2025 semesters. Participants who failed data-quality checks or reported being asexual or homosexual were excluded from analyses given the study focused on heterosexual cross-sex friendship dynamics. The final sample was mostly female, with an average age of 21.3 years.
Participants answered questions about their closest and second-closest cross-sex friends, excluding current romantic partners and family members. They completed an 11-item measure of their own romantic and sexual interest in each friend, a three-item measure of how much they thought each friend was interested in them, a bill-paying item using a 1-to-7 scale where higher scores meant the participant paid more, and an eight-item friendship-quality measure using a 1-to-7 agreement scale.
Because participants reported on two friends, the researchers could test both between-person effects, such as whether some men generally pay more across friendships, and within-person effects, such as whether a man pays more for the specific female friend he is more attracted to.
Dobson and colleagues found that men and women both reported a sex-differentiated pattern in bill paying. Men said they paid for more of the bill with female friends, and women said their male friends paid for more of the bill with them. This replicated earlier work suggesting that financial provisioning is more common from men toward women in cross-sex friendships.
The key findings supported the idea that financial provisioning can function as a courtship cue in friendship. Men who reported greater overall mating interest in their female friends also reported paying for more of the bill. This pattern did not appear among women in the same way; women’s mating interest did not predict greater financial provisioning, and women who were more interested in their male friends actually reported paying less.
Friendship quality also did not predict financial provisioning. Participants who viewed a cross-sex friendship as more supportive, enjoyable, emotionally close, valuable, or difficult to replace were not more likely to pay a larger share of expenses, providing no support for the alternative hypothesis.
Women also seemed to interpret men’s financial provisioning as a sign of interest. Women whose male friends paid more of the bill perceived those male friends as more interested in mating with them. Men, however, did not show the same pattern when female friends paid more.
Importantly, the effects were mainly between-person rather than within-person: the findings did not show that the same man pays more for the particular female friend he likes most. Instead, some men were more inclined than others to view cross-sex friendships as mating opportunities and to pay more across those friendships.
Of note is that this study was cross-sectional and relied on self-report, so it cannot prove that men intentionally paid more to signal mating interest or that women inferred interest because of the payment behavior. The sample involved young adults from a university setting, so the findings may not generalize to older adults or to different cultural contexts.
Overall, the findings suggest that cross-sex friendships are not equally platonic for everyone and that financial generosity may be one way mating interest is expressed and perceived within some male-female friendships.
The research, “Courtship in cross-sex friendship: novel tests of male financial provisioning as a signal and cue of mating interest,” was authored by Ryan T. Dobson, William Costello, and David M.G. Lewis.
-------------------------------------------------
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Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #CrossSexFriendship #CourtshipSignals #FinancialProvisioning #MatingInterest #GenderDifferences #EvolutionaryPsychology #RomanticInterest #SocialPerception #FriendshipDynamics #BehavioralSignals
-
DATE: June 13, 2026 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Being seen as unattractive as a teen is linked to an earlier death for women, but not for men
A recent study published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life suggests that physical appearance during adolescence might predict long-term survival rates into young adulthood. The research indicates that individuals who are perceived as physically unattractive during their teenage years tend to have lower odds of survival over the next few decades compared to their more attractive peers. These findings provide evidence that physical attractiveness could serve as an observable indicator of underlying health and physiological resilience.
To understand the connection between physical appearance and health, evolutionary biology and sociology provide helpful perspectives. Evolutionary theories propose that physical attractiveness might signal underlying genetic fitness and good health. Sociological perspectives suggest that beauty functions as a form of social capital that leads to better treatment in society.
This social advantage is often linked to the halo effect. The halo effect is a cognitive bias where people assume that physically attractive individuals also possess other positive traits, like intelligence and reliability. Because of this bias, attractive individuals often receive preferential treatment in education, employment, and healthcare.
On the other hand, individuals perceived as unattractive might experience more social stress and discrimination. Chronic social stress can activate the body’s primary stress response system. Over time, this biological stress and the resulting systemic inflammation can negatively impact a person’s long-term health.
Grzegorz Bulczak, a researcher affiliated with the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology in Warsaw and Gdynia Maritime University in Poland, wanted to test whether these appearance-based disparities translate into actual survival rates. He noticed a gap in the existing scientific literature regarding human lifespans.
“While a growing body of literature has established strong connections between physical attractiveness and various life outcomes, such as educational attainment, labor market success, and social mobility, exploring its connection to a hard outcome like mortality remained relatively unexamined,” Bulczak told PsyPost.
He sought to determine if physical attractiveness observed early in life, before major cosmetic interventions typically occur, affects a person’s chances of living longer. Measuring appearance during adolescence helps minimize the problem of reverse causality, where poor health might negatively alter a person’s physical appearance before they are even evaluated. “I wanted to investigate whether early-life physical attractiveness could serve as a visible, non-invasive proxy for underlying physiological resilience and long-term health risks,” Bulczak explained.
This new research builds directly upon a prior 2023 study authored by Bulczak and his colleague Alexi Gugushvili. That earlier study, published in the American Journal of Human Biology, explored how physical attractiveness relates to cardiometabolic risk. Cardiometabolic risk refers to a person’s chances of developing heart disease, diabetes, or a stroke.
In the 2023 research, the authors found that people rated as having above-average attractiveness tended to be noticeably healthier ten years later. They exhibited lower cardiometabolic risk compared to those considered average-looking. This held true even after the scientists accounted for body mass index, which is a medical measure of body fat based on height and weight.
The earlier study relied on the concept of allostatic load, which represents the cumulative physical wear and tear on the body caused by chronic stress. However, that study did not evaluate whether these biological differences actually impacted the lifespans of the participants. By expanding on this foundation, Bulczak’s current study attempts to see if early-life physical attractiveness predicts the hardest health outcome of all, which is mortality.
To examine the link between appearance and mortality, the researcher used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. This project is a massive, nationally representative survey of youth in the United States that began during the 1994 to 1995 school year. The original sample included 20,745 individuals in grades seven through twelve. The survey followed these participants for nearly three decades, with the most recent mortality data released in 2022.
For his analytical sample, Bulczak focused on 16,554 individuals who had valid measurements for attractiveness, mortality status, and key control variables. The mortality data covered all waves of the study from 1994 to 2022, providing a 28-year observation period. During the first wave of the study, human interviewers met with the adolescents and rated their physical attractiveness on a five-point scale. The scale ranged from one, meaning very unattractive, to five, meaning very attractive.
To ensure there was enough statistical contrast, Bulczak collapsed these ratings into three broad categories. The lowest two categories were combined into an “unattractive” group, which made up about seven percent of the sample. Individuals rated as “average” made up 44 percent of the sample. The top two categories were combined into an “attractive” group, which accounted for 49 percent of the sample and served as the benchmark for comparison.
The researcher employed a statistical technique called Cox proportional hazard models to estimate the survival times of the participants. This method is highly effective for studying how different variables influence the rate of a specific event happening over time, which in this case was death from any cause. To ensure the findings were accurate, Bulczak introduced control variables in measured steps to account for outside influences.
First, he accounted for basic demographic factors like age, sex, race, and ethnicity. Next, he added socioeconomic controls to ensure the results were not just a reflection of household resources. These included a vocabulary test score as a proxy for intelligence, parental education levels, and signs of a disadvantaged early environment.
Finally, he accounted for the participants’ initial health status during adolescence. This health adjustment included self-rated general health, body mass index, and a mental health score based on a standard depression scale. By controlling for initial health, the researcher aimed to limit the possibility that pre-existing illnesses were responsible for both an unattractive rating and a shorter lifespan.
The data indicates that physical attractiveness is an important predictor of mortality. Unattractive individuals were found to be 1.78 times more likely to die over the study period compared to those perceived as attractive. This relationship remained steady even after the researcher controlled for socioeconomic factors, intelligence, and early health conditions.
“Additionally, it was fascinating to observe that adjusting for initial physical and mental health conditions or socioeconomic backgrounds did not alter this main relationship, pointing toward deep-seated evolutionary and sociological mechanisms at play,” Bulczak said.
When the researcher split the data by sex, an unexpected pattern emerged. The association between being rated as unattractive and having lower survival chances was only visible among females. “The stark sex difference was quite notable,” Bulczak noted. “While the ‘ugliness penalty’ regarding mortality risk was pronounced and highly robust for females, it was not statistically significant among males.”
This sex difference suggests that beauty standards and the social pressures associated with them might affect the long-term health of women differently than men. “The main takeaway is that individuals perceived as physically unattractive during adolescence face a significantly higher risk of mortality into young adulthood compared to those rated as attractive,” Bulczak explained.
“Interestingly, this vulnerability appears to be particularly visible among females, suggesting that gender-specific beauty standards and the social pressures associated with them may have tangible impacts on long-term health and survival.”
Bulczak also performed several statistical checks to verify his findings. He analyzed a second attractiveness rating collected during a later wave of the survey when the participants were around 28 years old. This adult assessment produced similar associations with mortality, indicating that the impact of physical appearance on survival tends to remain stable over time.
While the study provides evidence of a link between appearance and mortality, the researcher emphasized the need for caution when discussing the findings. Quantifying human beauty carries the ethical risk of reinforcing lookism, which is a form of prejudice or discrimination against people who are considered physically unattractive.
“It is vital to approach this topic with ethical sensitivity,” Bulczak warned. “This research is meant to highlight systemic healthcare risks and social inequities, such as the ‘halo effect’ and lookism, not to validate harmful biases that equate intrinsic human worth with physical beauty.”
The study also faces a few methodological limitations. “Readers should remember that the initial attractiveness ratings were based on face-to-face evaluations by survey interviewers, which inherently capture subjective social perceptions rather than an objective biological metric,” Bulczak pointed out.
He also cautioned against misinterpreting the results. “Furthermore, while we tried to control for major confounders, it is essential to avoid a deterministic view of health; physical attractiveness is a proxy for complex, interacting biological and social factors, not an immutable destiny,” he added.
Because the cohort of participants is still relatively young, the overall number of deaths recorded in the sample is small. This limited variation makes it difficult to detect smaller, specific effects, such as the exact impact on males. Another limitation involves the pooling of the “very unattractive” and “unattractive” groups. Past studies suggest that people at the extreme low end of the attractiveness scale sometimes experience unexpected social advantages or higher incomes, and combining these groups might obscure unique survival trends among the least attractive individuals.
The reliance on all-cause mortality means the study grouped all types of death together. This broad approach makes it impossible to determine exactly how physical unattractiveness leads to an earlier death. Identifying whether these deaths are linked to chronic illnesses, accidents, or stress-related conditions would provide a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms.
“My next steps involve diving deeper into the specific sex-specific mechanisms that drive these differences,” Bulczak said. “I hope to explore more granular measures of attractiveness and further untangle how modern social-evaluative threats, chronic stress, and specific causes of death interact with perceived physical appearance over a longer life course.”
The study, “Physical Unattractiveness and Mortality in the United States,” was authored by Grzegorz Bulczak.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
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#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #PhysicalAttractiveness #MortalityStudy #AdolescentHealth #HaloEffect #Lookism #HealthDisparities #GenderDifferences #LongTermHealth #SocialCapital #SurvivalRates
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DATE: June 13, 2026 at 10:00AM
SOURCE: PSYPOST.ORG** Research quality varies widely from fantastic to small exploratory studies. Please check research methods when conclusions are very important to you. **
-------------------------------------------------TITLE: Being seen as unattractive as a teen is linked to an earlier death for women, but not for men
A recent study published in the journal Applied Research in Quality of Life suggests that physical appearance during adolescence might predict long-term survival rates into young adulthood. The research indicates that individuals who are perceived as physically unattractive during their teenage years tend to have lower odds of survival over the next few decades compared to their more attractive peers. These findings provide evidence that physical attractiveness could serve as an observable indicator of underlying health and physiological resilience.
To understand the connection between physical appearance and health, evolutionary biology and sociology provide helpful perspectives. Evolutionary theories propose that physical attractiveness might signal underlying genetic fitness and good health. Sociological perspectives suggest that beauty functions as a form of social capital that leads to better treatment in society.
This social advantage is often linked to the halo effect. The halo effect is a cognitive bias where people assume that physically attractive individuals also possess other positive traits, like intelligence and reliability. Because of this bias, attractive individuals often receive preferential treatment in education, employment, and healthcare.
On the other hand, individuals perceived as unattractive might experience more social stress and discrimination. Chronic social stress can activate the body’s primary stress response system. Over time, this biological stress and the resulting systemic inflammation can negatively impact a person’s long-term health.
Grzegorz Bulczak, a researcher affiliated with the Institute of Philosophy and Sociology in Warsaw and Gdynia Maritime University in Poland, wanted to test whether these appearance-based disparities translate into actual survival rates. He noticed a gap in the existing scientific literature regarding human lifespans.
“While a growing body of literature has established strong connections between physical attractiveness and various life outcomes, such as educational attainment, labor market success, and social mobility, exploring its connection to a hard outcome like mortality remained relatively unexamined,” Bulczak told PsyPost.
He sought to determine if physical attractiveness observed early in life, before major cosmetic interventions typically occur, affects a person’s chances of living longer. Measuring appearance during adolescence helps minimize the problem of reverse causality, where poor health might negatively alter a person’s physical appearance before they are even evaluated. “I wanted to investigate whether early-life physical attractiveness could serve as a visible, non-invasive proxy for underlying physiological resilience and long-term health risks,” Bulczak explained.
This new research builds directly upon a prior 2023 study authored by Bulczak and his colleague Alexi Gugushvili. That earlier study, published in the American Journal of Human Biology, explored how physical attractiveness relates to cardiometabolic risk. Cardiometabolic risk refers to a person’s chances of developing heart disease, diabetes, or a stroke.
In the 2023 research, the authors found that people rated as having above-average attractiveness tended to be noticeably healthier ten years later. They exhibited lower cardiometabolic risk compared to those considered average-looking. This held true even after the scientists accounted for body mass index, which is a medical measure of body fat based on height and weight.
The earlier study relied on the concept of allostatic load, which represents the cumulative physical wear and tear on the body caused by chronic stress. However, that study did not evaluate whether these biological differences actually impacted the lifespans of the participants. By expanding on this foundation, Bulczak’s current study attempts to see if early-life physical attractiveness predicts the hardest health outcome of all, which is mortality.
To examine the link between appearance and mortality, the researcher used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health. This project is a massive, nationally representative survey of youth in the United States that began during the 1994 to 1995 school year. The original sample included 20,745 individuals in grades seven through twelve. The survey followed these participants for nearly three decades, with the most recent mortality data released in 2022.
For his analytical sample, Bulczak focused on 16,554 individuals who had valid measurements for attractiveness, mortality status, and key control variables. The mortality data covered all waves of the study from 1994 to 2022, providing a 28-year observation period. During the first wave of the study, human interviewers met with the adolescents and rated their physical attractiveness on a five-point scale. The scale ranged from one, meaning very unattractive, to five, meaning very attractive.
To ensure there was enough statistical contrast, Bulczak collapsed these ratings into three broad categories. The lowest two categories were combined into an “unattractive” group, which made up about seven percent of the sample. Individuals rated as “average” made up 44 percent of the sample. The top two categories were combined into an “attractive” group, which accounted for 49 percent of the sample and served as the benchmark for comparison.
The researcher employed a statistical technique called Cox proportional hazard models to estimate the survival times of the participants. This method is highly effective for studying how different variables influence the rate of a specific event happening over time, which in this case was death from any cause. To ensure the findings were accurate, Bulczak introduced control variables in measured steps to account for outside influences.
First, he accounted for basic demographic factors like age, sex, race, and ethnicity. Next, he added socioeconomic controls to ensure the results were not just a reflection of household resources. These included a vocabulary test score as a proxy for intelligence, parental education levels, and signs of a disadvantaged early environment.
Finally, he accounted for the participants’ initial health status during adolescence. This health adjustment included self-rated general health, body mass index, and a mental health score based on a standard depression scale. By controlling for initial health, the researcher aimed to limit the possibility that pre-existing illnesses were responsible for both an unattractive rating and a shorter lifespan.
The data indicates that physical attractiveness is an important predictor of mortality. Unattractive individuals were found to be 1.78 times more likely to die over the study period compared to those perceived as attractive. This relationship remained steady even after the researcher controlled for socioeconomic factors, intelligence, and early health conditions.
“Additionally, it was fascinating to observe that adjusting for initial physical and mental health conditions or socioeconomic backgrounds did not alter this main relationship, pointing toward deep-seated evolutionary and sociological mechanisms at play,” Bulczak said.
When the researcher split the data by sex, an unexpected pattern emerged. The association between being rated as unattractive and having lower survival chances was only visible among females. “The stark sex difference was quite notable,” Bulczak noted. “While the ‘ugliness penalty’ regarding mortality risk was pronounced and highly robust for females, it was not statistically significant among males.”
This sex difference suggests that beauty standards and the social pressures associated with them might affect the long-term health of women differently than men. “The main takeaway is that individuals perceived as physically unattractive during adolescence face a significantly higher risk of mortality into young adulthood compared to those rated as attractive,” Bulczak explained.
“Interestingly, this vulnerability appears to be particularly visible among females, suggesting that gender-specific beauty standards and the social pressures associated with them may have tangible impacts on long-term health and survival.”
Bulczak also performed several statistical checks to verify his findings. He analyzed a second attractiveness rating collected during a later wave of the survey when the participants were around 28 years old. This adult assessment produced similar associations with mortality, indicating that the impact of physical appearance on survival tends to remain stable over time.
While the study provides evidence of a link between appearance and mortality, the researcher emphasized the need for caution when discussing the findings. Quantifying human beauty carries the ethical risk of reinforcing lookism, which is a form of prejudice or discrimination against people who are considered physically unattractive.
“It is vital to approach this topic with ethical sensitivity,” Bulczak warned. “This research is meant to highlight systemic healthcare risks and social inequities, such as the ‘halo effect’ and lookism, not to validate harmful biases that equate intrinsic human worth with physical beauty.”
The study also faces a few methodological limitations. “Readers should remember that the initial attractiveness ratings were based on face-to-face evaluations by survey interviewers, which inherently capture subjective social perceptions rather than an objective biological metric,” Bulczak pointed out.
He also cautioned against misinterpreting the results. “Furthermore, while we tried to control for major confounders, it is essential to avoid a deterministic view of health; physical attractiveness is a proxy for complex, interacting biological and social factors, not an immutable destiny,” he added.
Because the cohort of participants is still relatively young, the overall number of deaths recorded in the sample is small. This limited variation makes it difficult to detect smaller, specific effects, such as the exact impact on males. Another limitation involves the pooling of the “very unattractive” and “unattractive” groups. Past studies suggest that people at the extreme low end of the attractiveness scale sometimes experience unexpected social advantages or higher incomes, and combining these groups might obscure unique survival trends among the least attractive individuals.
The reliance on all-cause mortality means the study grouped all types of death together. This broad approach makes it impossible to determine exactly how physical unattractiveness leads to an earlier death. Identifying whether these deaths are linked to chronic illnesses, accidents, or stress-related conditions would provide a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms.
“My next steps involve diving deeper into the specific sex-specific mechanisms that drive these differences,” Bulczak said. “I hope to explore more granular measures of attractiveness and further untangle how modern social-evaluative threats, chronic stress, and specific causes of death interact with perceived physical appearance over a longer life course.”
The study, “Physical Unattractiveness and Mortality in the United States,” was authored by Grzegorz Bulczak.
-------------------------------------------------
Private, vetted email list for mental health professionals: https://www.clinicians-exchange.org
Unofficial Psychology Today Xitter to toot feed at Psych Today Unofficial Bot @PTUnofficialBot
-------------------------------------------------
#psychology #counseling #socialwork #psychotherapy @psychotherapist @psychotherapists @psychology @socialpsych @socialwork @psychiatry #mentalhealth #psychiatry #healthcare #depression #psychotherapist #PhysicalAttractiveness #MortalityStudy #AdolescentHealth #HaloEffect #Lookism #HealthDisparities #GenderDifferences #LongTermHealth #SocialCapital #SurvivalRates
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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
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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
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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?
Stay up-to-date with all of Dr. Jen’s work through her practice’s newsletter!
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:
- Lower Desire Occupations (Compared to Senior Managers): After accounting for other factors, nearly every other occupation was linked to significantly lower sexual desire. This effect was especially strong for elementary workers (β = -0.27), skilled workers and craftsmen (β = -0.19), and office and customer service workers (β = -0.16).
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 -
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?
Stay up-to-date with all of Dr. Jen’s work through her practice’s newsletter!
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:
- Lower Desire Occupations (Compared to Senior Managers): After accounting for other factors, nearly every other occupation was linked to significantly lower sexual desire. This effect was especially strong for elementary workers (β = -0.27), skilled workers and craftsmen (β = -0.19), and office and customer service workers (β = -0.16).
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
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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
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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
#BayesianIf you like graphs, you'll probably like it!
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Songs that are about #science are great - like this one about gender differences in spatial navigation.
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Songs that are about #science are great - like this one about gender differences in spatial navigation.
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⭕️ En 81.000 evaluaciones de equipos, estos son los adjetivos que más se repetían con hombres y mujeres. Vía @loretahur
https://hbr.org/2018/05/the-different-words-we-use-to-describe-male-and-female-leaders
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@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.. 😄