The battle of the sexes has resurfaced today after a new study revealed that one sex outstrips the other when it comes to being selfless…
And it looks like women come out on top when it comes to being kind and generous, the Independent reports.
Yep, new research from the University of Zurich has revealed that male and female brains may react different to what is called ‘prosocial’ (aka selfless) and selfish behaviour.
And it’s all to do with the way our brains reward us when we do something selfless…
For the study, 56 adults were asked to make ‘prosocial’ decisions related to sharing money, while their brain waves were analysed.
When the women behaved kindly, they experienced a greater reward signal in the brain – which releases the feel-good hormone dopamine – than men do.
In a second experiment, the participants were given medication to inhibit the release of dopamine and women were seen to behave more selfishly, while the men exhibited more generosity and kindness.
Study author Alexander Soutschek said: ‘These results demonstrate that the brains of women and men also process generosity differently at the pharmacological level.’
But the brain reactions could be due to how we’re brought up.
‘The reward and learning systems in our brains work in close cooperation,’ says Soutschek.
‘Empirical studies show that girls are rewarded with praise for “prosocial” behaviour, implying that their reward systems learn to expect a reward for helping behaviour instead of selfish behaviour.
‘With this in mind, the gender differences that we observed in our studies could best be attributed to the different cultural expectations placed on men and women.’
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