Breakups And Healing: Men Never Really Emotionally Recover, Study Shows
Breakups can be devastatingly difficult for our mental and physical health. A new study shows that of the two sexes, women tend to typically take a bit more time to get over things. Yet did you know that they are also more likely to recover fully?
Researchers from Binghamton University and University College London asked 5,705 participants in 96 countries to rate their emotional and physical pain following a breakup based on a scale of one (roughly none) to 10 (unbearable pain); and here's what they found. Women were more likely to rate higher numbers on the scale (6.84 in terms of emotional anguish versus 6.58 in men). And in terms of physical pain, women averaged 4.21 versus men's 3.75.
However, at the end of it all, women tended to recover more fully and come out emotionally ahead. Men, on the other hand, never really recovered. They simply moved on, according to lead study author and research associate Craig Morris of Binghamton University.
"Put simply, women are evolved to invest far more in a relationship than a man," Morris said, in a news release. "A brief romantic encounter could lead to nine months of pregnancy followed by many years of lactation for an ancestral woman, while the man may have 'left the scene' literally minutes after the encounter, with no further biological investment. It is this 'risk' of higher biological investment that, over evolutionary time, has made women choosier about selecting a high-quality mate. Hence, the loss of a relationship with a high-quality mate 'hurts' more for a woman."
However, as men have evolved to compete for the romantic attention of a woman, the high-quality loss does not "hurt" quite as much at first.
"The man will likely feel the loss deeply and for a very long period of time as it 'sinks in' that he must 'start competing' all over again to replace what he has lost -- or worse still, come to the realization that the loss is irreplaceable."
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