Women feel more pain after a break up than men, according to a new study.
Researchers at Binghamton University and University College London asked nearly 6,000 people in 96 countries to rate their emotional and physical pain after a break up.
Women reported higher levels of both types of pain, a finding the researchers attribute to evolution.
As lead Binghamton University researcher Craig Morris explains:
“Put simply, women are evolved to invest far more in a relationship than a man. A brief romantic encounter could lead to nine months of pregnancy followed by many years of lactation for an ancestral woman, while the man may have ‘left the scene’ literally minutes after the encounter, with no further biological investment. It is this ‘risk’ of higher biological investment that, over evolutionary time, has made women choosier about selecting a high-quality mate. Hence, the loss of a relationship with a high-quality mate ‘hurts’ more for a woman,” Morris said.
