Men more likely to sacrifice for love

[guppy]

Men place romance above career, education and travel: researchers

Tom Spears, Ottawa Citizen; CanWest News Service

Published: Thursday, August 30

OTTAWA - Here's the new view of men and women from two gender issues scholars: Ward Cleaver rushing home early from work to light candles and make the perfect anniversary dinner; June staying late at the office.

She doesn't need romance in her life, not if there's a career ladder to climb; meanwhile he'll sacrifice the promotion or the business trip to Maui to spend more time with his little pumpkin, say two researchers -- both women, incidentally -- who studied men, women, and their commitments to romance or ambition.

Aaahh, men, those crazy fools for love. Or, in science-speak: "Contrary to predictions, the mean Relscore for men (M 1.39, SD .27) tended to be lower than the mean Relscore for women (M 1.46, SD .24)."



The current generation of young, college-educated men appear to feel a strong need for romance, a researcher writes.

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This trend suggests men were more likely than women to place a romantic relationship above achievement goals. "Specifically, men were more likely than women to indicate that they would sacrifice their career, education, and travelling for romantic partnership."

Catherine Mosher did her research while studying for her PhD in clinical psychology at Duke University; co-author Sharon Danoff-Burg teaches at the State University of New York, in Albany.

Their research has been published in a journal called Gender Issues.

The two asked 237 of the usual psychology study subjects (college students) how they would act in a variety of situations.

There were 80 men and 157 women. Here's a sample question: ''Suppose that a close romantic relationship developed ... If you had to choose between the relationship and having a professional career, which would you choose?'' The answers turned into something called a relationship score ("Relscore" in the published version). It was all theoretical; none of the students had to follow through with real actions, which raises some questions about whether those promising to swim the deepest ocean for their beloved were big, fat liars.

The lead researcher herself allows that these students have yet to prove whether love conquers all in their lives.

"It's true, what they state on paper may not necessarily translate into what they do down the road. It would take longitudinal research to find out," Mosher said.

"I think I would have to look more at the sociological literature, at any changes and the degree to which men are involved in their relationships versus their work, to start to look at generational differences."

In other words, maybe.

But she thinks there's an indication the current generation of young, college-educated men feels a strong need for romance at the core of their lives. The findings on romantic men surprised her, she acknowledges. She says so right in the article. Oddly, her work did not surprise the experts who reviewed it for the journal, to decide whether it was worth publishing.

"They said: 'I don't know why the author is surprised by the finding. We know that men fall in love faster than women do, and that sort of thing.' "