Women have often been considered more emotionally sensitive than men. Is this true? Well, according to scientific research it is true. Women “tune in” and “pick up” on people’s feelings more often and more accurately than men.
“Girls as young as a year old are more responsive to the distress of other people, especially those who look sad or are hurt. Men pick up the subtle signs of sadness in a female face only 40 percent of the time, whereas women can pick up these signs 90 percent of the time,” writes Dr Brizendine.
It seems the explanation for the differing degree of ability to “read” the signs of emotional distress lies in the biology of our brains.
Dr Louann Brizendine is a neurobiologist, a medical doctor, a psychiatrist, founder of UCSF Women’s Mood and Hormone Clinic in San Francisco, a wife, a mother, and the author of the book The Female Brain.
In her book she tracks and reveals the journey of hormone influences on the life experience of females, from embryo to menopause and beyond. As a woman you will recognize and have many of your own experiences validated in the descriptions of the physical, mental and emotional shifts she articulates. Her book is a gem for all women. And for men, you will finally get a handle on what goes on inside a woman’s brain, what makes her tick.
Here’s an example from her book of how a woman “tunes in.”
The scene: Sarah bursts into tears and her husband is surprised.
“As she asks him …(read her book for the vital question)… her visual system begins scanning his face intently for signs of his emotional response to her question. Does he tighten his face or relax it? Does he clench around the mouth, or keep it neutral? Whatever the expression on his face, her eyes and facial muscles will automatically mimic it. “
“The rate and depth of her breathing start to match his. Her posture and muscle tension conform to his. Her body and brain receive his emotional signals. This information is sent through her brain circuits to search her emotional memory banks for a match. This process is called “mirroring,” and not all people can do it equally well. “
“Sarah’s brain will begin stimulating its own circuits as if her husband’s body sensations and emotions were hers. In this way she can identify and anticipate what he is feeling – often before he is conscious of it himself.”
Matching breathing, matching posture, she is becoming a human emotion detector. She is feeling his tension in her gut, his jaw clenching in the strain of her neck.
Her brain registers the emotional match: anxiety, fear and controlled panic.”
“As he starts to speak, her brain carefully searches to see if what he says is congruent with his tone of voice. If the tone and meaning do not match, her brain will activate wildly. Her cortex, the place for analytical thinking, would try to make sense of this mismatch. “
“… Sarah’s female brain is a high-performance emotion machine – geared to tracking, moment by moment, the non-verbal signals of the innermost feelings of others. By contrast, Nick, like most males, according to scientists, is not as adept at reading facial expressions and emotional nuance – especially signs of despair and distress. It’s only when men actually see tears that they realize, viscerally, that something’s wrong.
Perhaps that’s why women evolved to cry four times more easily than men – displaying an unmistakable sign of sadness and suffering that men can’t ignore. “
This ability, to tune into and pick up innermost feelings of others, most women are born with. To women it is instinctive, subconscious, can be honed, and is often dismissed when it can’t be described in words but only experienced as sensations or feelings. Dr Louanne Brizendine has not only described the tuning in but also backed it up with scientific research. This is a book I read a few years back and am reading again. It is affirming, enlightening and fun.
As one of my interests is communication it reinforces that words are only 7 to 8 percent of communication and the remaining majority is body language and voice tone and tempo. (Register for the Dynamic Communication course for more on this.)
I highly recommend this book to women, to understand themselves, the stages of their journey from in the womb, through birth, childhood, teen years, sexual attraction, motherhood, menopause and beyond.
I highly recommend this book to men to understand how a woman’s mind is created and how it works, what makes her tick, what drives her and what brings her joy and fulfillment. Because it’s true, women “tune in” better than men. They are build for it.
The Female Brain by Louann Brizendine, M.D.
To order the book go to www.AnnaMcRobertBlog.com and scroll down till you find the Book Title icon on the right side – click on the book to order.
Happy reading.
Cheers
Anna McRobert