A new study has found that women suffer more emotional pain following a breakup than men, but they are also quicker to recover.
Researchers from Binghamton University and University College London, both in the U.K., involved 5,706 participants from 96 countries in determining the difference between the emotional and physical pain experienced by men and women after a breakup. Each participant rated the pain from a scale of 1 (none) to 10 (unbearable). Emotional pain following a breakup includes feelings of sadness and depression, anxiety, fear and loss of focus, while physical pain includes insomnia, panic attacks, eating disorders and weight change, according to LiveScience.
Women experience more emotional and physical pain, averaging at 6.84 and 4.21, compared to men, who reported an average of 6.58 and 3.75. On a positive note, women tend to recover faster and go on with their lives. Researchers explained that women hurt more because they tend to invest more in a relationship compared to men.
"Put simply, women are evolved to invest far more in a relationship than a man," Craig Morris, a research associate at Binghamton University and lead author on the study, 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."
Men also experience pain, but comes delayed and mostly struggle in recovering from the emotional pain.
"When you talk to a man about a breakup, you can see he is still there. The anger. The disappointment. There was never any end to this for him. Most men never use the phrase, 'I got over it,'" Morris told HealthDay News.
The human brain is hardwired to move on after breakups and fall in love again, as HNGN previously reported. However, the recent study suggests that men seek help and support for faster recovery from their emotional pain because prolonged depression can lead to self-destructive behaviors.
The study was published in the July 31 issue of the Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences.
