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Women seem to prefer heart-felt apologies and quality time. But men appear to prefer a kind gesture, particularly sexualย favors.
For the study, researchers conducted two online surveys. The first included 74 people aged 18 to 54. Thirty-eight of the volunteers were women. The survey asked them to think of โactsโ people had done when trying to reconcile with aย partner.
From that survey, the researchers classified answers into 21 categories. The study authors then provided these options to a separate group of men and women to determine which were the most popular andย effective.
The second group included 164 people, aged 18 to 61, with 123ย women.
The study showed that men believe that doing something nice for your partner or providing sexual favors was the most effective way to patch thingsย up.
โWomen may thereby use sexual favors as a way to reconcile with their male partner,โ study leader T. Joel Wade, of Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Penn., said in a journal newsย release.
โDoing so may communicate to their male partner that they are still sexually accessible and, as such, do not want to end the relationship,โ heย added.
Women, on the other hand, believed the best thing their partner could do to repair damage to their relationship is apologize. Men that can shed a few tears to show they are truly sorry and in touch with their emotions may be most likely to be forgiven, the studyย found.
โWomen may rate spending time together more highly because this behavior signals a partnerโs willingness to invest effort and limited resources (e.g. time) into their romantic pair-bond. Such actions by a man may signal the likelihood of a potentially high parental investment which women prefer,โ Wadeย said.
โWomen may find the act of their male partner apologizing to be an effective reconciliation tactic because it is viewed as an altruistic act,โ he added. โA manโs apology may redirect the cost of romantic conflict to himself rather than to his partner, and thereby demonstrate his ability to provide emotional support and incur personal costs for hisย partner.โ
References
Wade, T. J., Mogilski, J., & Schoenberg, R. (2017). Sex Differences in Reconciliation Behavior After Romantic Conflict. Evolutionary Psychological Science,ย 1-7.