Everyone gets stressed out, but new research suggests that men and women cope with these situations in different ways.

 

According to the study, men become more egocentric（自我中心的） and self-centered when stressed. They have trouble separating their own intentions and emotions from those of the people around them.

 

On the other hand, women who are under a lot of stress may become "prosocial."

 

"There's a subtle boundary between the ability to identify with others and take on their perspective -- and therefore be empathic（移情作用的） -- and the inability to distinguish between self and other, thus acting¹ egocentrically," study author Dr. Giorgia Silani explained in a release. "To be truly empathic and behave prosocially it's important to maintain the ability to distinguish between self and other, and stress appears to play an important role in this."

 

The study participants were asked to do "moderately" stressful things, like speak in public or answer math problems in their heads. They were then asked to imitate certain movements, identify their own emotions or those of others, and judge something from another person's perspective.

 

"What we observed was that stress worsens the performance of men in all three types of tasks. The opposite is true for women," Silani said.

 

The researchers said their original hypothesis was that stress would make people more self-centered across the board, so they were partly correct.

 

They also said they aren't sure why this is the case.

 

"At a psychosocial level, women may have internalized the experience that they receive more external support when they are able to interact better with others," Silani said.

 

On a physiological² level, the discrepancy³ could be caused by oxytocin, the hormone⁴ connected with social behaviors, she added. Other studies have shown that women produce more oxytocin（催产素） in stressful situations than men do.

 

The international study was led by Silani, who is from the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) in Trieste, Italy, in cooperation with researchers from the University of Freiburg in Germany and the University of Vienna.

 

The study was published in the journal Psychoneuroendocrinology（精神神经内分泌学）.

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