Women are more likely to blame themselves if they fail – while men tend to put their failures down to bad luck, study reveals
- Scientists surveyed more than 500,000 15-year-old students in 72 countries
- Questions were designed to measure competition, self-confidence, and careers
- Females were more likely to point to lack of talent when they failed academically
- Males were more likely to attribute failure to external factors, such as bad luck
Whether it’s a driving test or an exam, no one likes to fail.
But a new study suggests that our reactions to failures vary massively – especially between the sexes.
Researchers from the University of Paris have revealed that women are more likely to blame themselves if they fail, while men tend to put their failures down to bad luck.
Researchers from the University of Paris have revealed that women are more likely to blame themselves if they fail, while men tend to put their failures down to bad luck (stock image)
Women more likely to admit if the bill is wrong
In a recent study, researchers from Tel-Hai College in Israel set out to understand customers’ capacity for honesty in real-life situations.
A group of 278 participants were asked to eat alone at a restaurant in Tel Aviv and order two items from the menu, such as a coffee and a sandwich.
At the end of their meal, they were presented with their bill, but one of the two items they had eaten was missing.
The researchers found that the majority (169) of the participants failed to flag the error to their waiter.
However, a range of factors appeared to play in role in the decision of whether or not to raise the issue with the waiter.
Female customers were 16 per cent more likely to report the missing item than male customers.
And those customers whose more expensive item had been omitted reported the error twice as often.
In the study, the researchers set out to understand why a ‘gender-brilliance’ stereotype persists in so many countries, in which men are portrayed as more brilliant, or inherently talented than women.
‘This stereotype may hold women back in careers thought to require brilliance and could be related to gender differences in competitiveness, self-confidence, and willingness to work in male-dominated occupations such as information and communication technology,’ said the researchers, led by Clotilde Napp.
The team used survey data from more than 500,000 15-year-old students in 72 countries, collected as part of the 2018 Programme for International Student Assessment.
Survey questions were designed to measure the students’ attitudes towards competition, self-confidence, and future careers.
For example, one of the questions included in the survey was: ‘When I am failing, I am afraid that I might not have enough talent.’
The responses revealed that female participants were much more likely than males to point to a lack of talent when they failed academically, even when they performed equally.
Meanwhile, male participants were more likely than females to attribute failure to external factors, such as bad luck.
This stereotype was strongest in developed or more gender-egalitarian countries, and stronger among high-achieving students, according to the researchers.
‘The evidence provided in the paper suggests, in particular, that exposure to cultural stereotypes about girls’ intellectual abilities and talent leads boys and girls to develop attitudes and preferences that they may not have had otherwise,’ the researchers explained.
‘In sending these messages, our culture may needlessly limit the behaviours, preferences, and career options that boys and girls consider.’
According to the researchers, the stereotype may be detrimental to both men and women.
‘For example, it may lead [men] to rely too much on talent and quick learning, to underestimate the role of effort over ability in the performance of particular tasks, to despise hard and in-depth study, and to abandon school work in case of failure,’ they added.
The researchers believe the findings could help to explain why some gender gaps persist around the world.
‘Further analyses indicate that the stereotype that girls lack raw talent can explain some of the gender gaps in self-confidence and the expectation that a student will work in an information and communication technology job,’ they concluded.
IS SWEARING A SIGN OF INTELLIGENCE?
Research in 2014 revealed people who frequently swear are more likely to have a bigger vocabulary than their clean-tongued peers.
A colourful tongue does not mean the talker is lazy or uneducated, the study published in the Language Sciences journal found.
Instead, those who are more confident using taboo words are more articulate in other areas.
Kristin and Timothy Jay, the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts psychologists who co-wrote the study, said it proved swearing was positively correlated with verbal fluency.
‘We cannot help but judge others on the basis of their speech,’ they wrote.
‘Unfortunately, when it comes to taboo language, it is a common assumption that people who swear frequently are lazy, do not have an adequate vocabulary, lack education, or simply cannot control themselves.’
In their conclusion, they added: ‘The overall finding of this set of studies, that taboo fluency is positively correlated with other measures of verbal fluency, undermines the [normal] view of swearing.’
A separate and unrelated study from the University of Rochester in 2017 found that intelligent people tend to swear more.
Despite this, studies have also found that the perception of people who swear often is that they are actually less intelligent and trustworthy, creating somewhat of a paradox.
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