successful women
Do successful women make men feel bad?
A new study claims men feel better when their partners fail.
September 9, 2013 - 22:02 — Heidi Scrimgeour
A new American study suggests men feel better when their partners fail. What's that all about?
A study published by the American Psychological Association found that men subconsciously feel bad about themselves when their partners succeed.
Researchers studied 896 people in five experiments and concluded that men were more likely to feel subconsciously good about themselves when their female partner failed than when she succeeded.
32 couples from the University of Virginia were asked to complete a test involving problem solving and social intelligence, and subsequently told that their partner had either scored in the top or bottom 12 percent of all university students. Having a partner who scored high or low on the test did not affect the participants’ explicit self-esteem (how they said they felt) but participants were also given a test to determine how they felt subconsciously about their partners’ performance (implicit self-esteem). The men who believed that their partner had scored in the top 12 percent demonstrated significantly lower implicit self-esteem than the men who believed their partner scored in the bottom 12 percent.
Intriguingly, women’s self-esteem was not affected by their male partners’ successes or failures.
The study’s lead author, Kate Ratliff, PhD, of the University of Florida said:
“It makes sense that a man might feel threatened if his girlfriend outperforms him in something they’re doing together, such as trying to lose weight. But this research found evidence that men automatically interpret a partner’s success as their own failure, even when they’re not in direct competition.”
The researchers found that the nature of the women’s achievements or failures weren’t significant and there was no correlation between them and the participants’ own successes or failures — men simply
A new study claims men feel better when their partners fail.
September 9, 2013 - 22:02 — Heidi Scrimgeour
A new American study suggests men feel better when their partners fail. What's that all about?
A study published by the American Psychological Association found that men subconsciously feel bad about themselves when their partners succeed.
Researchers studied 896 people in five experiments and concluded that men were more likely to feel subconsciously good about themselves when their female partner failed than when she succeeded.
32 couples from the University of Virginia were asked to complete a test involving problem solving and social intelligence, and subsequently told that their partner had either scored in the top or bottom 12 percent of all university students. Having a partner who scored high or low on the test did not affect the participants’ explicit self-esteem (how they said they felt) but participants were also given a test to determine how they felt subconsciously about their partners’ performance (implicit self-esteem). The men who believed that their partner had scored in the top 12 percent demonstrated significantly lower implicit self-esteem than the men who believed their partner scored in the bottom 12 percent.
Intriguingly, women’s self-esteem was not affected by their male partners’ successes or failures.
The study’s lead author, Kate Ratliff, PhD, of the University of Florida said:
“It makes sense that a man might feel threatened if his girlfriend outperforms him in something they’re doing together, such as trying to lose weight. But this research found evidence that men automatically interpret a partner’s success as their own failure, even when they’re not in direct competition.”
The researchers found that the nature of the women’s achievements or failures weren’t significant and there was no correlation between them and the participants’ own successes or failures — men simply