Women guilty of feeling too guilty, study shows
Men and women are created equally. However, in truth, men and women have different traits and habits, and the funny thing is that a recent study done by Spanish researchers has indicated that women feel guilt over just about anything more than their male counterparts.
Are Men Less Likely To Feel Guilty Than Women?
The recent Spanish study interestingly notes that men are guilt-deficient, while many women surprisingly suffer from destructive guilt, which they see is most likely imposed by society. A study done by psychologists at the University of New Orleans also adds that men are supposed to feel less guilt intensely because they are less emphatic than women. Why is this so ? The University of New Orleans study simply notes that it’s the way evolution made us.
The Guilt Feelings In Women May Be Genetic In Nature
Habitual guilt by women may be as a result of genetics. The Spanish research team has noted that habitual guilt, which is described as a type of internalized feeling of guilt, is much more intense in women as compared to men. Interpersonal guilt, which is described as the type of guilt that’s related to how our action or inaction affects others, is significantly much higher in women than it is in men. The study although notes that older men achieve the same levels of habitual guilt as women.
Women Need Support, While Men Need Counseling
The recent Spanish study notes that women need constant emotional support, while men need fixing or counseling. The study also highlights that there should be more socializing agents and educational practices to help considerably reduce the levels of anxious aggressive guilt in women. There also needs to be extra promotion of interpersonal sensitivity in men, so that men would become more sensitive to the feelings of women.
Men Are More Self-Centered, While Women Worry More About Their Actions
Whether men forget their wedding anniversary or cheat on their wives and feel less remorse, these studies note that more and more women continue to feel more guilty than men. Women are twice as likely to tie themselves in stomach-turning knots of regret and shame, even for their slightest failings. The study further adds that men are more self-centered, and their greatest feelings of guilt arise from either drinking to much or over-eating, rather than on their behaviors. Women on the other hand, worry far more about hurting other people, or worry more about their actions or inactions.
In both the Spanish and University of New Orleans studies, one thing stands out: Women are more complex emotionally. The study’s proponents admit that anytime you study men and women, and ask them about their emotions, women are more likely to admit to having far more complex array of emotions, while men are more less likely to show how they feel, and are less likely to feel guilt.