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Dec. 16, 2011
Gender specific benefit
Positive thinking helps females, hinders males.
ARIEH O’SULLIVAN THE MEDIA LINE
New research shows that men who are overly optimistic tend to skip studying, thinking everything will work out, but are more likely to wind up with lower grades. Women, on the other hand, benefit from optimism since they’re generally more responsible than men and hit the books even when they are confident they are ready for a test, according to a study done at the Negev’s Ben Gurion University.
“We were interested in looking into the question whether optimism is beneficial,” explained Tamar Icekson, a PhD student in the department of business administration. “Surprisingly, we found that it was very beneficial for female students to be optimistic. However, their male counterparts didn’t benefit so much; on the contrary. We found that male students who scored high on the optimism scale got the lowest grades in class.”
Together with Oren Kaplan, a professor at Ben Gurion’s College of Management, the study focused on the comparative effects of positive emotions.
“It’s very controversial, but there are a lot of studies showing that men are generally more optimistic than women; for example, they tend to take more risks. They usually evaluate their successes higher…. But we see that there is an important difference between the two sexes here ... females usually are more what we call conscientious. They take care. They are more responsible for their studies,” she said.
The research was done by monitoring 175 students where each participant’s optimism was measured through the Life Orientation Test. The test asked questions like: “Usually things turn out for the best for me” or “I believe the sky’s the limit,” “I believe things will be better in the future” and “If something can go wrong for me, it will.”
Icekson said that overly confident males might think, “Hey, instead of studying enough for a test, go out and have a barbecue the night before,” whereas “women have a lower self-esteem ... if they are not sure things will work out, then they study for the test.”
Data collected in America showed little difference between the optimism levels of the two cultures. Interestingly, men and women tend to get more optimistic as they grow older. “There are several studies showing that [when] ... older, sometimes you are more optimistic, and your wellbeing is higher when you are older because maybe you know yourself better and you have better methods to cope with stress,” said Icekson.
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