14 DAY TRIAL // It’s often said that women have this bad habit of becoming too emotional and, at the same time, feeling guiltier than they should about one thing or another. Recent research comes to show though that, comparatively, it’s not the women who overdo it with the guilt trip but the men, who actually feel less guilty than they should, the Telegraph says.
Conducted at the University of the Basque Country in Spain by Itziar Etxebarria, the study shows that middle-aged women (aged 40 to 50, to be more precise) are the most prone to feeling exaggeratedly guilty. At the opposite pole are men between 25 and 33 who were described, following the study, as the least sensitive of all age groups. The solution to finding a middle way that is successful for both groups consists of employing educational practices and a “range of socializing agents,” researchers say.
“Feelings of guilt are more intense among females, not only among adolescents but also among young and adult women. They also show the highest scores for interpersonal sensitivity. This difference is particularly stark in the 40 to 50-year-old age group. The data also suggest that female teenagers and young women have higher scores than males of the same age,” Etxebarria says of the findings of the study.
“Educational practices and a whole range of socializing agents must be used to reduce the trend towards anxious-aggressive guilt among women and to strengthen interpersonal sensitivity among men,” she says. In women, the feeling of guilt is rather socially conditioned, she further says. “The anxious-aggressive kind of guilt is more common in people who have been raised in a more blame-imposing environment, and who are governed by stricter rules about behavior in general and aggression in particular,” Extebarria adds.
The study was conducted on three different age groups divided equally in men and women. 156 teenagers, 96 youngsters and 108 older adults were interviewed in the study, answering various questions on what made them feel guilty and ranking the empathy they felt for those around them.