CAN’T READ A MAP? BLAME BIOLOGY

Road rage

Although research indicates that both men and women feel anger with the same frequency, women may be better at holding back their frustration. Neuroscientists at the University of Pennsylvania School found that the orbital frontal cortex, the part of the brain involved in controlling aggression, is much larger in women than men. This may be why women are better at restraining themselves from explosive outbursts – such as bellowing when another motorist cuts you up on the M25.

Argument resolution

One of the key findings from the Stanford research was that the female participants showed greater activity in the default mode network – a system of connected brain areas which is associated with internal thought and introspection. Daydreaming or simply contemplating another person’s perspective are linked to this region – allowing women to be more reflective in conflicts, whether in office politics or the right way to stack a dishwasher.

Doing the washing-up

Women do most of the chores around the home because men do not see mess in the same way, University of Cambridge academics suggested in December last year, in a phenomenon they described as “affordance theory”. While men will look at a pile of dishes in the sink, unlike women, they don’t feel the urge to do anything about it. “Men should be encouraged to resist gendered norms by improving their sensitivity to domestic task affordances,” the researchers concluded.

Map-reading

Many romantic mini-breaks and countryside walks have been ruined by men’s belief in their superior powers of navigation

– and they may have a point. Several studies have hinted that men seem to display greater visual and spatial awareness on average than women, along with a better working memory – allowing them to plot a route with more confidence. Whether their female partner still wants to walk alongside them, having been informed of this, is another question entirely.

Sending thank you notes

Women are better at “remembering to remember”, multiple studies have found, a useful trait when sending a birthday card to Great-Aunt Susan or planning a child’s themed outfit for World Book Day. Writing in the Experimental Psychology Society’s quarterly journal, researcher Liana Palermo of Aston University reflected that because, in daily life, women might have to do more remembering and planning, this enhances their skills in such areas.