Vivre la Difference

But what really makes the difference between the sexes is what we do when we do indeed break up. I thought this was an interesting set of results:

When it comes to strategies used to cope with the break-up, the study confirmed something we all know: women do endless amounts of analysis discussion, unpicking every aspect of the relationship with their friends (and yes, probably eating a bucket of chocolate ice-cream too) – which may help to avoid making the same mistakes again – but then again probably not.

Men indulged less in spilling their guts to their friends, which isn’t really surprising when we consider that for men to attract women status is vitally important, and so men can’t be seen to be weak in the eyes of others or give up information that could be used against them later. Instead, they were more likely than women to jump straight back in the sack.

Anyway, the coping strategy that showed by far the biggest sex difference of all was… shopping. Whether girls were dumper or dumpee, they shopped. And if they had measured it in the study I’m pretty sure the researchers would have found an increase in visits to the hairdresser, beauty salon and gym.

A woman can get supreme satisfaction from wafting past her ex looking like a million dollars. Physical appearance is more important for women than men in attracting a new mate, and bagging a new mate (or getting the old one back) is exactly what our biology is trying to get us to do after a break-up.

Anyone who has babysat a female friend after a break up will know that the first part is true. But I do think the whole article could be made a great deal shorter. In essence:

After a breakup women go shopping and men get laid.

Perhaps not very politically correct to say so but it does seem to work out that way.