I’m sure we’ve all personally experienced, or watched a close friend struggle through a difficult breakup. I automatically think back to my best friends High School break up that she still weeps over to this day. Movies and T.V shows usually have the female in the relationship struggle through the emotions of romantic breakup, while the male appears completely fine. However,  it seems as if the media’s portrayal of modern day relationships is accurate in today’s culture. So why is exactly that breakups hurt women more? A study performed by researchers at Binghamton College claim we blame genetics for this trend. For the Study, researchers asked 5,705 randomly selected individuals from 96 different countries to rate the physical and emotional pain they felt after their most recent breakup on a scale from 1 (no pain) to 10 (unbearable pain). Women ranked their emotional pain, such as feelings of sadness, depression and anxiety on average a 6.84, compared to 6.58 for men. Additionally, women reported their physical pain (such as insomnia, panic attacks, etc.) to be 4.21, compared to the males results of 3.75.

While it’s evident that women experienced greater physical and emotional pain after a breakup, studies suggest that the two sexes experience different types of breakup related emotions in the same proportions. For instance, both sexes reported strong feelings of anger and depression, and lesser amounts of fear and instability. Similarly, both men and women reported trouble sleeping and weight fluctuations in much greater quantities than panic attacks following a breakup.

The age old question still stands, why do women experience deeper emotions than men after a romantic break up? Researchers can conclude from this study, along with countless similar experiments that it’s because women naturally have more to lose than men. Craig Morris, a scientist at Binghamton University claims that: “Women are evolved to invest far more in a relationship than a man is, A brief romantic encounter could lead to nine months of pregnancy followed by many years of lactation for an ancestral woman, while the man may have ‘left the scene’ literally minutes after the encounter, with no further biological investment.”

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This claim is completely understandable, and definitely contributes to why women take breakups harder than men do. However, women may not get the complete short end of the stick in this situation. The study also showed that men are left with a different type of emotional scarring. Morris quotes: “The man will likely feel the loss deeply and for a very long period of time as it ‘sinks in’ that he must ‘start competing’ all over again to replace what he has lost — or, worse still, come to the realization that the loss is irreplaceable,” Morris said.  A greater explanation outlining the varying romantic feelings in males compared to females is highlighted here.

So there you have it, while women experience the loss of a lover more intensely overall, the emotions are  typically more intense but with a quicker rebound compared to males, whereas the initial feelings may be bearable,  the recovery process can be much longer.