UK Wedding News
03/09/2013
The research, which has been published online in the American Psychological Association's Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, found that men subconsciously feel worse about themselves when their wife or girlfriend succeeds in something, rather than when she fails.
However, the same does not apply for women, who are claimed to thrive in the shadow of a successful husband or boyfriend, according to the research, which looked at heterosexual Americans and Dutch.
A total of 896 people took part in five experiments. In one test, 32 couples from the University of Virginia were given what was described as a "test of problem solving and social intelligence". They were then told by researchers that their partner had scored in either the top – or bottom – 12% of all university students. It was discovered that hearing how their partner scored on the test, did not affect the participants' 'explicit self-esteem' or how they said they felt.
They also took part in a test to determine how they subconsciously felt about their partners' performance, which the researchers called 'implicit self-esteem'. For this experiment, a computer analysed how quickly people associate good and bad words with themselves, and those with a high implicit self-esteem who saw the word "me" on a computer screen are more likely to associate it with words such as "excellent" or "good", rather than "bad" or "dreadful".
Interestingly, for men who believed that their partner scored in the top 12%, they demonstrated significantly lower implicit self-esteem than men who believed their partner scored in the bottom 12%.
The findings were similar in two more studies conducted in the Netherlands.
In the final two experiments, which were carried out online, 657 US participants were asked to think about a time when their partner had succeeded or failed and in one study, it was revealed that men's implicit self-esteem was greatly affected when they thought about a time when their partner succeeded at something while they had failed.
Elsewhere, researchers looked at how relationship satisfaction affected self-esteem, and women were reported to feel better about their relationship when they remembered a time their partner had succeeded rather than a time when they had failed. The same could not be said for the male participants.
Lead author for the study, Kate Ratliff from 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."
(JP/CD)
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Men Feel Worse If Their Partner Is More Successful – Study
A new study has suggested that men actually do feel worse about themselves if their partner is more successful.The research, which has been published online in the American Psychological Association's Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, found that men subconsciously feel worse about themselves when their wife or girlfriend succeeds in something, rather than when she fails.
However, the same does not apply for women, who are claimed to thrive in the shadow of a successful husband or boyfriend, according to the research, which looked at heterosexual Americans and Dutch.
A total of 896 people took part in five experiments. In one test, 32 couples from the University of Virginia were given what was described as a "test of problem solving and social intelligence". They were then told by researchers that their partner had scored in either the top – or bottom – 12% of all university students. It was discovered that hearing how their partner scored on the test, did not affect the participants' 'explicit self-esteem' or how they said they felt.
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They also took part in a test to determine how they subconsciously felt about their partners' performance, which the researchers called 'implicit self-esteem'. For this experiment, a computer analysed how quickly people associate good and bad words with themselves, and those with a high implicit self-esteem who saw the word "me" on a computer screen are more likely to associate it with words such as "excellent" or "good", rather than "bad" or "dreadful".
Interestingly, for men who believed that their partner scored in the top 12%, they demonstrated significantly lower implicit self-esteem than men who believed their partner scored in the bottom 12%.
The findings were similar in two more studies conducted in the Netherlands.
In the final two experiments, which were carried out online, 657 US participants were asked to think about a time when their partner had succeeded or failed and in one study, it was revealed that men's implicit self-esteem was greatly affected when they thought about a time when their partner succeeded at something while they had failed.
Elsewhere, researchers looked at how relationship satisfaction affected self-esteem, and women were reported to feel better about their relationship when they remembered a time their partner had succeeded rather than a time when they had failed. The same could not be said for the male participants.
Lead author for the study, Kate Ratliff from 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."
(JP/CD)
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