Often times after a bad breakup, we audition for a replacement of our ex with a pint of rocky road ice cream, a Beyoncé playlist or even our fluffy tear-stained pillow. But, it seems that after auditions are over (and all three contestants are picked!), we, as women, are able to move on and get over it, according to a new study.
Cosmopolitan reports that Binghamton University and University College London published a study in the journal Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences on the after-effects of a breakup. The study used 5,705 participants from 96 countries and found that women take the hardest emotional blow after a breakup (whether in an opposite-sex or same-sex relationship), however it enables them to move on more than men. There might be an evolutionary explanation; our female ancestors had more to risk when entering a relationship, so when that relaitonship ends, there is more pain.
Where does this leave men? As men are not “supposed” to show their emotions, it results in them often bringing more baggage to their next relationship, because they have not fully dealt with the loss of their previous one. “When you move from the numbers to the actual stories, you can see that women are clearly talking about something in the past,” Craig Morris, the anthropologist who led the study told the Washington Post. “But when you read men’s responses, you never get that sense of closure — the breakup is always something that they’re just dealing with. It’s a constant wound, even if they’re now married with grandkids.”
So, it goes to show that in the emotional dance that is a breakup, it really does take two to tango.