Men are at least as emotionally affected as women by their marital problems.
- The exchanges of more than 184,000 people on a forum were analyzed.
- This research method is a first in psychology.
Contrary to popular belief, it is not women who suffer the most during a breakup, but men. These are the conclusions of a new studypublished in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships.
A scrutinized discussion forum
To achieve these results, psychologists used a novel method: they analyzed the content of an online discussion forum. In particular, this made it possible to avoid certain biases. “Most of what we know about relationship problems comes from studies done with people in couples therapy, which corresponds to specific profiles. These individuals have the time, the money and the motivation to work on their concerns torque”, which is not the case for everyone, explains Charlotte Entwistle, author of the study. With our new method, “We wanted to understand not only which relationship problems are most often encountered by the general population, but also who experiences these difficulties the least well”, she adds.
Men discuss their heartbreaks a lot more
His analyzes revealed that the theme most often mentioned by people talking about their relationship problems was the emotional pain felt rather than the troubles themselves. The expressions that came up the most in the conversations were as follows: “heartache”, “regret”, “crying” and “broken heart”.
Contrary to their expectations, the researchers also found that men discuss their heartache much more than women. “The fact that the subject of heartbreak is more often discussed by men than by women indicates that men are at least as emotionally affected as women by relationship problems”, Charlotte Entwistle analysis.
The research also showed that communication problems within the couple were the most frequently mentioned concern during discussions on the forum.
.
