In all countries of the world, men, on average, live less than women. In Russia, this difference is especially large – about 11 years. What is the reason, scientists decided to find out and came to paradoxical conclusions.
Diana Sanchez, a psychologist and associate professor at Rutgers University’s School of Arts and Sciences (USA), is researching the causes of reduced life expectancy in men. In the US, men live five years less than women, and this cannot be explained solely by physiological differences.
Pass the tests
- Can you go to bed on time?
- What physical form are you in?
Diana Sanchez and graduate student Mary Himmelstein conducted two studies. One of them involved about 250 men who answered the questions of the questionnaire via the Internet. The questions were devoted to the definition of masculinity from the point of view of the respondents and the differences in the psychological qualities of men and women. It turned out that the more “masculine” answers the respondents gave, the more likely they preferred to be treated by male doctors rather than women.
The researchers then asked 250 male students at a major university to answer the same questions. Each student was then interviewed by medical students of both sexes, asking about health problems. It is noteworthy that the most “masculine” participants in their answers were much more frank in a conversation with a female “doctor” than in a conversation with a man. Such a controversial approach – the tendency to be treated by male doctors when not willing to openly tell them about their medical problems can potentially interfere with the effectiveness of treatment.
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Previously, the same authors conducted another study1. Mary Himmelstein and Diana Sanchez interviewed 193 students (88 men and 105 women, mean age 19) and 298 volunteers (148 men and 150 women, mean age 35) found online using the Amazon Mechanical Turk website. As expected, men with traditional beliefs about masculinity were less likely to seek medical help, tended to downplay their symptoms, and as a result, their health was worse on average than women and men who did not share such beliefs. It is interesting that the same problem also extended to women who adhered to beliefs traditionally considered masculine (reliance only on their own strength, courage, restraint).
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“Men still have it worse because of the traditional ideas of masculinity rooted in our culture, which include courage, resilience, self-reliance. Women, on the other hand, are not told that they need to ignore health problems and symptoms of illness in order to be called a “real woman,” says Mary Himmelstein.
Подробнее см. М. Himmelstein, D. Sanchez «Masculinity in the doctor’s office: Masculinity, gendered doctor preference and doctor–patient communication», Preventive Medicine, vol. 84, March 2016.
1 М. Himmelstein, D. Sanchez «Masculinity impediments: Internalized masculinity contributes to healthcare avoidance in men and women», Journal of Health Psychology, October 2014.