Stand up comedy would be nothing today without comedians making observations about the differences between men and women. And it’s likely people have been drawing various conclusions about the difference between men and women since men and women first existed. Nowadays we can rely on more than just casual observation and look at science and stats to see just how different we really are.
10. Men Sweat More, and Sooner, Than Women
Let’s say you have a man and a woman working out together. They’re both in shape, both putting in the same amount of effort, doing the same amount of work, and both working up a sweat. Who do you think is going to sweat more?
As it happens, men really do sweat more than women and that’s backed up by research. In fact, men will start sweating sooner than women and will sweat about twice as much overall. Women have to put in a lot more work to start sweating.
In one study, men lost twice as much moisture from their foreheads, back, check, forearms and thighs during the course of a workout. And while they may sound like a boon for women, it actually indicates that men’s bodies tend to work more efficiently at staying cool when they’re working. Part of this is thanks to testosterone levels, which are believed to aid in sweat production.
9. Men are Twice as Likely to Gamble as Women
Anyone can find themselves caught up in the thrill of a game of chance or a game of skill, especially when money is on the line. It’s hard to deny the thrill of gambling and winning. But people do tend to fail far more often than they succeed. So who’s most likely to get sucked into this dynamic?
Men tend to be more inclined than women to gamble by a significant margin. Study results have shown that men are around twice as likely to gamble as women. And among members of both sexes who gamble, 20.1% of men would qualify as “problem gamblers” while only 7.8% of female gamblers qualify.
Another study has shown that it doesn’t take a lot to convince a man to make a risky financial decision, either. In fact, if a fortune teller gives a man a good fortune, that man is more likely to make a risky gamble as a result.
8. Men Tend to Say I Love You Earlier Than Women
Have you ever seen a movie or TV, usually a comedy, in which a male character stumbles over trying to tell a woman he loves her? And he legitimately can’t form the word? This stems from some sort of belief that men have trouble admitting their feelings but research shows the exact opposite is true. In fact, men tend to profess their love as much as six weeks earlier than women, on average.
Now this doesn’t necessarily mean men are more sensitive and loving than we at first thought. Other research has shown that men seem to prefer hearing from a woman that the woman loves them before they consummate their relationship sexually than after. It’s possible, therefore, that men jump the gun on saying I love you in the hopes that the woman will return the sentiment and sex can therefore occur sooner in a way that the man finds acceptable.
7. Men Are 88.7% More Likely to Win a Darwin Award
The Darwin Awards are one of the internet’s historical relics, dating back to 1993. The idea of the awards is to celebrate, after a fashion, people who have improved the human genome by “accidentally removing themselves from it.” In other words, people who died by what has been deemed a stupid accident. It’s a morbidly funny concept, and it’s been going strong for a very long time now.
Some may be surprised to learn and others may be less surprised to learn that Darwin Award winners are overwhelmingly men. In fact, men make up 88.7% of all Darwin Award winners. This extends well beyond silly internet awards as well as explained by something called the “Male Idiot Theory.” Please don’t be offended, that’s the name someone else gave it.
Based on data related to mortality rates and info from hospital emergency rooms, men are just far more likely to be injured accidentally or playing sports. They also have worse automobile accidents and all of this together has built some observable evidence that men take more stupid risks than women regardless of culture and socioeconomic factors.
Researchers actually poured over 20 years worth of Darwin Awards data to prove, legitimately, that men are more prone to doing stupid things than women. Selection And reporting bias likely affect the numbers to some degree, but that massive 88.7% difference is more than mildly significant.
6. Women are Far More Likely to Live a Vegan Lifestyle
Women are more likely to be vegan and that’s a fact. At least one study found that only 24% of vegans are men. Another study bumped the number up to 37%, which is still clearly very low. There’s a good chance this comes, in part, from the way we have traditionally looked at meat. Meat is manly. It doesn’t need to make sense, it’s just the way it has always been presented to us. Men grill meat and eat steaks and burgers and so on. Women are often portrayed as being daintier and eating salads and so on. Maybe it’s all stereotyping and based on no real facts at all, but numbers don’t lie.
Psychologists have observed that men are often fearful of appearing to do anything that isn’t masculine. And they will even amp up their perceived manliness in the aftermath of performing a task considered feminine. In the face of a complete lifestyle overhaul, such as going vegan, this is a stumbling block for manly men. This includes for health reasons or moral reasons.
5. Men and Women Often Lie for Different Reasons
Here’s a tough one for you. Who do you think is more honest and trustworthy overall, men or women? The answer is… not that easy, either. Everyone can be deceitful, but the reasons why men and women are deceitful may be surprising.
Research has shown that men tend to lie more often for their own benefit while women are more likely to lie for someone else’s. A man will be more likely to tell a lie that makes himself look better. He may lie about his height to seem taller, how strong he is to seem tough, how much money he makes to seem richer. In contrast, women lie about those same types of things but for the opposite reasons. They’ll lie about their age to seem younger, their weight to seem slimmer, and their sexual partners to seem less experienced. So men lie to boost and women lie to minimize.
Some studies show women are more likely to lie, as much as twice as likely, in fact, as men. But the lies they tell are to be nice. That means to spare someone’s feelings or make them feel better. They will also lie to help boost someone, such as if they have to advocate for someone else in some way, while men tend to not go out on a limb for another person in that way.
4. Men are Far More Likely to Get Skin Cancer Than Women
There’s a common stereotype that men are a little more stubborn about their own health than women. They will do less to care for themselves and the evidence seems to back this up, especially in terms of skin cancer rates. By the time they reach age 80, men are three times as likely to get skin cancer as women are. White men over 55 are the most likely to be diagnosed with melanoma in America compared to any other group.
A major part of this discrepancy is that women, by and large, do far more for their own skin care than men. This includes makeup and moisturizers that have an SPF. Only 14% of men wear sunscreen when they go out. A large number of men are unaware of the dangers of the sun as well. Only 56% of men surveyed knew that there is no such thing as a healthy tan compared to 76% of women.
Part of the problem here is that sunscreen is marketed very specifically to women. The imagery and language use is very explicitly directed at women and this harkens back to what we know about veganism already. Men don’t want to be perceived as being less than manly and will avoid things considered feminine, even if it literally kills them.
3. Men are Much More Likely to Be Struck by Lightning Than Women
There’s a good chance you never worry about being hit by lightning because why would you? The CDC says you have less than a one in a million chance of being hit in any given year. That said, your odds do increase if you’re a man. You’re four times as likely to be struck, in fact, compared to women.
Between 2006 and 2016, there were 352 people who were struck and killed by lightning. Of those, 79% of the victims were men. The reason men are the more common victims could be accounted for when you factor in what most of the victims are doing. About 90% of the male victims were fishing or playing sports, meaning they were outside and likely holding something that essentially worked as a lightning rod. The lesson here is that, if a storm rolls in, drop the rod or the golf clubs for your own safety.
2. Men Fart Much More Often Than Women
No doubt the one question that has plagued you for years is who farts more, men or women? Well, science has your answers so you can rest easy. You may have long speculated that men were the gassier sex, and you were right. Men are actually working them out almost twice as often as women. This has been studied by real scientists.
When 60 men and 60 women were tasked with tracking their gas, men had an average of 12.7 farts per day. The women only clocked in with an average of 7.1. One man pulled off a whopping 53 in a day. The leading woman tapped out at 32.
Obviously diet will have the greatest effect on this and it’s not consistent from one day to another, but the general conclusion still stands. Men are just a little windier than women.
1. Far More Men Than Women Don’t Wash Their Hands After Using a Bathroom
Of all the differences between men and women, few are likely to make you feel as uncomfortable as this one. We’re looking at bathroom habits and what we’re seeing isn’t good. A full 15% of men do not wash their hands after going to the bathroom. Of the remaining 85% who do wash their hands, only 50% use soap.
On the flip side, 7% of women are disinclined to clean up after using the restroom, and 78% will use soap out of those who do. More off putting is that only 5% of all participants washed their hands long enough to kill the kinds of germs that can make you sick. This is based on results from 3,749 participants.
Now maybe that was just one study that had curious results. What does the CDC say? According to them, 69% of men won’t wash their hands after using a public bathroom, compared to 35% of women.
Both of these studies are getting pretty old at this point, the first from 2013 and the second from 2009. Perhaps after Covid people’s habits have changed but for now, you may want to assume any hands you shake aren’t as clean as they could be.