The stereotype still prevails that women are more emotional than men. But researchers are now sweeping that prejudice off the table.

It is often thought that men and women process emotions in different ways. And that would result in women being a lot more emotional. This means that they are more likely to be overwhelmed by emotions and, for example, cry, laugh or become angry more quickly. But to what extent is this prejudice about women actually correct?

Interpretation

According to researchers in a new study it just depends on how certain feelings are interpreted. For example, some feelings – such as enthusiasm, nervousness or strength – are often perceived differently between the two sexes. “For example, a man whose emotions fluctuate during a sports game is more likely to be described as ‘passionate,’ while a woman whose emotions change as a result of an event — even if provoked — is often called irrational,” said study researcher Adriene Beltz.

Study

In a new study, the researchers put it to the test. For 75 days, they followed 142 men and women to learn more about their everyday emotions, both positive and negative. The women were divided into four groups. Women in the first group do not use contraception while the women in the other three groups use different forms of oral contraceptives.

Man vs Woman

The researchers compared the sexes. And that leads to an interesting conclusion. It turns out that they found little to no differences between the men and the different groups of women. This suggests that men’s emotions fluctuate to the same extent as women’s — though probably for different reasons.

Birth control

In addition, the researchers also compared the different groups of women. Because does the use of contraception still affect emotions? “We found no meaningful differences between the groups of women,” says Beltz. “This clarifies that emotional highs and lows can be due to many different things — not just hormones.”

The findings have far-reaching implications. Women are often excluded from some research, in part because of the assumption that fluctuations in hormone levels lead to variations in emotions. “But our study uniquely provides psychological data showing that the justification for excluding women — based on the idea that fluctuating ovarian hormones lead to emotions that disrupt experimentation — are unfounded,” Beltz said.