## Metadata - Author: [[Iris Wahring]] - Full Title:: Why Romantic Relationships Matter More to Men Than to Women - Category:: #🗞️Articles - URL:: https://psyche.co/ideas/why-romantic-relationships-matter-more-to-men-than-to-women - Read date:: [[2026-10-23]] ## Highlights > In 2023 and 2024, I analysed more than 50 empirical studies and meta-analyses, revealing masculinity to be much more fragile than assumed. At every stage, from the first spark of attraction to the aftermath of a breakup, it is men who depend more on their romantic partners, for their happiness and, in measurable ways, for their survival. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m5kgy31rpwh0g7h48ds6ktc1)) > For example, a 2020 meta-analysis by Yafeng Wang from Wuhan University in China and colleagues, involving data on marital status and mortality risk from 7.9 million individuals and 1.9 million deaths, found that unmarried women had a 22 per cent higher mortality risk than married women, but unmarried men even had a 46 per cent higher mortality risk than married men. So for the average man, being in a committed relationship is more decisive for how long they will live than it is for the average woman. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m5kh3ac8gdtg25sfvf1qcafg)) > They are less likely to feel like they have learned something from the breakup. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m5kh4fdzx6hxyw0dfq7radw8)) > after a breakup from a cohabitating partner, women tend to spend less time on household chores than before, leaving them with more time for enjoyable activities. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m5kh5et7b4yxz5hkeyevv2kd)) > women are more likely to remind their partners to go to the doctor than vice versa. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m5kh5vsvgc6djmw4vx4908qm)) > the most robust and far-reaching explanation for why the ‘stronger’ gender is so much more emotionally fragile in the face of heartbreak is intimacy: research consistently [shows](https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/explore-mental-health/statistics/men-women-statistics) that men, throughout their lives, are less likely to receive emotional support. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m5kh6h1py0wrrbgvqwpa5p5t)) > men are more likely to view their romantic partners as their primary confidant. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m5kh951ebnfcxzzaz7mfj0wa)) > losing that partner can represent the loss of his entire emotional infrastructure. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m5khafpz9fjkd0y2xhvek1az)) > The root of this isolation is the traditional male gender role. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m5khaseba71xs98kpjdzveqk)) > A comprehensive [meta-analysis](https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2019-40417-001) led by the social psychologist Alice Eagly from Northwestern University in Illinois, including studies spanning from 1946 to 2018, shows that communal traits, like emotionality and nurturance, are still overwhelmingly attributed to women. Both men and women continue to view emotionality as a desirable trait in women, but an undesirable one in men. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m5khbm0m9a66ecdrbzy1mavx)) > Yet, beneath this stoic mask, men [experience](https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4928818/) vulnerable emotions like sadness and fear just as frequently and intensely as women do. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01m5khbsbdkwwygw791ycwggw2))