A research group has come to a startling conclusion: men enjoy seeing "cheaters" punished more than women:Bill Clinton said he felt others' pain. But a new brain-scanning study suggests that when guys see a cheater get a mild electric shock, they don't feel his pain much at all. In fact, they rather enjoy it.The study was based on a control group of men and women playing a game, and suggests men are better at punishing rule-breakers. Chances are most Americans could have deduced that without a study based on common sense. The board game shown above caused its share of arguments around the A.C. household, and when such disruptions occurred the participants (all male) displayed high levels of schadenfreude.
In contrast, women's brains showed they do empathize with the cheater's pain and don't get a kick out it.
This also easily translates to politics. There is an old saying about the nature of republicans and democrats--Republicans are the "daddy party", strong on punishment, war, low social benefits, etc, and the democrats are the "mommy party", more willing to cut slack on just about everything. That's just the ole saying, you realize.
Of course there are always exceptions, and I'm thinking of one now--Hillary. Somehow I don't believe the republicans could get away with putting her in such a box, people just wouldn't buy it. Maybe that's why she has a chance in 2008.
By the way, before you start pigeon-holing women as empathizers with evil-doers, consider this important distinction:
The researchers said women might have reacted like men if the cheater suffered psychological or financial pain instead.Of course. "A woman scorned" never really applied to cheating at "Risk".
No comments:
Post a Comment