Sex Difference with unpleasant memories

On average, with considerable overlap.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167876012000098

Maxx said:

Apparently men more accurately remember unpleasant things:


http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120201092721.htm

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I haven't yet looked at veinglory's link, but the difference sex makes in titling is interesting.

Men More Likely to Have an Accurate Memory of Unpleasant Experiences

ScienceDaily (Feb. 1, 2012) — A woman's memory of an experience is less likely to be accurate than a man's if it was unpleasant and emotionally provocative, according to research undertaken by University of Montreal researchers at Louis-H Lafontaine Hospital....

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But later:

..."Our test relied on photos -- we found firstly that highly arousing pictures blur women's capacity to determine whether they've seen it before, and secondly that women have a clearer memory of attractive experiences than men. Arousal has an enhancing effect on the memory of men however, as does 'low valence' or unpleasantness."
...

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You'd hardly catch that the title and intro could have just as easily been about women's (hypothesized) greater ability to remember pleasant experiences more accurately than men.


That's just a quick first impression. The study does sound interesting, and I'm not meaning to discount that. Still, I hope it was just the reporter who decided on all of that phrasing. These kinds of studies have been fraught with so much bias historically that it made me pause.

Maxx said:

If you look at figure 1 in the online article Veinglory cited, you can see the differential impact of Valence is larger than arousal and so saying "Men remember unpleasant things better" is not as misleading as it seems.

BUT I suspect the amount of gender-unbalanced cultural information in the unpleasant pictures is what is throwing things off. In my experience as a man, women remember things better overall unless it is in some area where men tend to have more actual experience structuring their memories.

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Ah! That makes sense, although it's still misleading to have only one takeaway in any title about the studies. I like your title better, and the authors' own title is what I like best Yes, I'd really have magazine articles with those sorts of titles in a perfect world

I can't look at the studies in detail today, though. I'll get sucked in, and I don't have time! I'll revisit it later

eta: "BUT I suspect the amount of gender-unbalanced cultural information in the unpleasant pictures is what is throwing things off." Yeah, that's where my mind goes immediately, too. Those kinds of studies are so hard to do very well, I think.

Human women are noted for never forgetting the slightest disappointment in bed, and deflating the pleasant if fuzzy memories of the men involved. So, I'm not sure how accurate this can be or what the practical application is beyond using corporal punishment to get men to remember to take the garbage out or not to leave the seat up.

Interesting. I wonder if the matter of arousal and orgasm in women being more intense was considered. I guess that the link posted by Vein may answer that. Too bad it costs to read.

You can see the figures for free which is a good portion of the info.

It is also only the link at the bottom of the article OP linked to--always good to read any report on research at least to the point where they state who did the research and where it is published. Because, honestly, most secondary coverage of primary research is pretty misleading/outright wrong.