BRAIN STRAIN: The colored regions in this image show the circuits in the brain involved our ability to internally simulate and understand the emotions of others.
Image: Mara Mather
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The Wisdom of Psychopaths
In this engrossing journey into the lives of psychopaths and their infamously crafty behaviors, the renowned psychologist Kevin Dutton reveals that there is a...
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MONTREAL—When we're under immediate stress—say, we are about to give a speech or about to be mugged—we either fight or flee, or so scientists have long preached. But some psychologists are now suggesting that this scenario may apply mainly to males. Men get antisocial under pressure, but women tend to react in the opposite way: they "tend and befriend," engaging in nurturing and social networking, perhaps as a way to protect their offspring, according to a theory proffered by neuroscientist Shelley Taylor of the University of California, Los Angeles. Here at the Cognitive Neuroscience Society 2010 annual meeting, psychologist Mara Mather of the University of Southern California presented powerful new support for Taylor's hypothesis in the divergent ways that stressed men and women respond to faces.
Mather and her colleagues asked male and female subjects to place their hand in ice water for three minutes, an activity that makes levels of the stress hormone cortisol shoot up over the next hour or so. Then these subjects—and a comparison group whose hands had been comfortably immersed in warm water—looked at angry or neutral faces while lying inside a brain scanner.
These conditions revealed a striking sex difference in the brain in the extent to which men and women process faces, and perform emotional assessments of others, under stress. The men under the influence of high cortisol levels showed less activity in a key face-processing region of the brain (the fusiform face area or FFA) than the unstressed men did, suggesting that stressful situations diminish the ability of men to evaluate facial expressions. By contrast, the brains of the women under strain worked harder on the faces: in these females, the FFA was more active than it was in women who did not experience the cortisol boost.
This sex difference was apparent not only in the face evaluation area, but also in a circuit of regions that enables people to internally simulate and understand the emotions of others. This circuit includes the insula, which governs feelings of empathy, and the temporal pole, which helps us understand others' states of mind. According to the researchers' analysis, stress appeared to increase the flow of information between these regions and the FFA in women, orchestrating a concerted response. But in males, cortisol worked to disconnect the brain's analysis of facial expression from its evaluation of others' emotions.
"Will stress increase females' accuracy in interpreting facial expressions—and fuel greater empathy?" Mather asks. Women do seek out affiliation during difficult or threatening times, she says, whereas men don't. Women's ability to read people's expressions more intensely and more accurately could partially underlie this propensity to bond under such circumstances—whether organizing a collective response to an earthquake or reaching out to a potential client during a tense negotiation. "When we start looking at stress, that is where the sex differences in behavior emerge," Mather says.
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Add CommentWhen I was a soldier in Vietnam, on one occasion, our unit, a Mechanized Army Infantry unit, was approaching an area that was under imminent threat of military attack by a large North Vietnamese military force. Hundreds of local Vietnamese women, terrified to death of the approaching North Vietnamese force, raised up their arms to us screaming and crying in desperation to us pleading for us to defend them from this force, which we did. This is the difference in how men and women react to stress.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhile not a veteran of any conflict nor a "scientific American" I found Archimedes comments to be poignant and not altogether inappropriate regardless of the truth. Terrified people tend to reveal their most baser instincts as they scratch and claw for survival against nature (of a human origin) presented to them "red in tooth and claw". This is not a comment against archimedes only a simple observance. I trust we can all observe with deference the coming cataclysms with such aplomb.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWhy do you need to soak a persons hand in cold water and then do a brain scan? Seems like a wierd way to study something with mountains of anecdotal evidence.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAlso, this report says that women have empathy when threatened. Rediculous...
I would agree that, generally speaking, men have a tendency to withdraw socially when in crisis, vs women tend to seek social allies. Probably because other men are unlikely to be supportive.
I think it's natural selection related to violence/war. When under threat (and presumably stress), a man needs to be able to kill another man without hesitating. Registering empathy would probably stand in the way of this imperative.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIn my opinion, women instinctively tend to be more social perhaps due to the need for support; on the contrary, men like to be more independent. So under pressure, they get closer to their instinct and naturally behave the way they are really supposed to.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI can see this being true on average, however, I personally know exceptions including myself. A friend of mine, a female, happens to be very antisocial in cases of stress; she actually gets very angry if you don't leave her alone. As for myself, a guy, I am much more social under stress so long as those surrounding me aren't causing the stress.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think that this is true on average, however, I personally know exceptions to this including myself. One of my friends, a female, happens to be very antisocial while under stress; she actually gets very angry if you don't leave her alone even if you did not cause her problem and are just trying to help. I on the other hand, a guy, become much more social unless those around me are causing the stress.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe unclear point is the relation between face evaluation and sociality. Face interpretation doesn't necessarily aim to seek sympathy, however, it could aid the person with watching out carefully to have appropriate reactions.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHere's Evolution again- I like to call it: Eve'solution: Female group survival - and thereby the survival of babies- was bound to be heavily reliant on the 'sisterhood' of a friendly harem, and a natural selection of the best male genes was made possible by the annual Alpha Male Contest, which means: the Loneliness of the Long-distance Runners, spermwise or otherwise!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thiswow. lots of interesting observations. I prefer not extrapolating large psychological intentions from an experiment such as the one described. I still love the old pavlovian experiments showing basic neurologic reactions. we can now identify brain areas, but to go on from there seems scientifically unsound.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI would be interested to know if this hold true across different cultures. In some cultures there is far more emphasis placed on competition than on cooperation especially in males. What about the societies/cultures where team work and coordination are most prized?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOr, maybe the answer is more simple than the proposed from this experiment. Women were looking at faces more longer/more intently as an attempt/strategy to distract themselves (and kill time) from the pain of having their hand in an ice bowl.. and men opted to distract themselves from the pain by focusing just internally...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIs there something new here?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis stuff has been known for years.
Why are we wasting money on this 'research'?
I'm a 28 year old woman, and under stress, I most certainly withdraw. I don't see faces more clearly. On the contrary, I avoid looking at other's faces altogether. I'd say psychological state and personality have a good deal more to do with an individuals reaction to ANY situation...not gender.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMale/female is sex (biological). Man/woman is gender (social). Woman ` female. Man ` male.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMale and female brains are different from birth, but brain function is highly plastic. Your life experiences rewire your brain. Women and men are socialized very differently. This will lead to a change in brain function.
This study compares brain function of male men and female women. Trying to extrapolate sex differences or gender differences individually is guesswork.
Bah. Those ` are supposed to be "not equal to" signs.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI wonder if perhaps the gender difference in reaction to stress is maybe mis-interpreted. I find that men such as myself tend to seek short term solutions that satisfy the goals of the individual or small group. Women tend to seek short term solutions that satisfy a larger group and thus avoid longer term problems.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAny way you slice it men and women are different. This is good because I find most men kinda ugly and most women visually appealing.
That is also a difference in the training of your job. I am not saying your job was not stressful, but you were trained how to do your job as best as you possibly could.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisfor an interesting point of view on
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisthe psychology of men vs. women,
Look up Ursula K. LeGuin's
Bryn Mawr Commencement Address.
She charts an entirely different language,
entirely different conceptualization,
inclusive vs. exclusive.
The whole study is only based upon assessment of facial expression: angry or neutral faces. The options for a man to deal with stress in a brain scanner are severily constrained. Men may also take body language into account more than facial expression. The study seems too narrow to draw any substantial conclusions about men or women.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this