Being a man, it turns out, is hazardous to your health.
Sure, they are the ones who fight our wars, and battle poses its
share of dangers. Young males are also often risk-takers just for the
thrill of it, and their predilection for highs has its lows, rendering
them more likely to die than young women.
But subtract the excesses of youth and a stark fact remains: At
every age and stage of life, men die sooner than women do. "Men die
young, even when they're old," screamed the news bulletin that flashed
across my computer screen.
Take one example. In 1998, the latest year for which such
information is available, among persons over 65 years of age, 4,655 white
men and 132 African-American males committed suicide. By contrast, 902
white women and 20 African-American women committed suicide that
year.
OK, subtract suicide. Men in their 60s are still 1.68 times more
likely to die as women, mainly due to disease.
The gender gap in deaths is not just an American thing. A new study
across 20 countries reveals that men carry a disproportionate risk of
premature death everywhere, in Ireland and Australia and Singapore and El
Salvador. The gender gap, on the rise since the 1940s, has only grown
bigger in recent years.
No one is sure why it exists in the first place. Is there something
about the Y chromosome that makes men vulnerable? After all, men get an X
and a Y while women get two Xs, and the second X provides just a lot more
genetic duplication than can fit on a Y chromosome. Still, genetic
explanations of complicated behaviors have been fashionable over the past
decade, but seldom do they pan out.
However, tantalizing clues emerge from other studies, especially
ones that include information about social support. Social support is
known to reduce stress and improve mental and physical health. The effect
of social support is so great that lack of a social network has been
called at least as powerful as smoking as a cause of death.
Researchers who recently looked at suicidal thinking among
seniors -- even among seniors who have endured lifelong social
inequality -- find that those who have active or passive thoughts of
suicide are less likely to have the support of a confidante. They are
also less likely to get support from strong religious or spiritual
beliefs.
The sexes differ dramatically in social support. Quite simply, men
are more competitive, which limits support, and women are more
cooperative.
The cost of competition between men could be their
longevity.
Although men sometimes ridicule them for it, women tend to develop
social networks and confiding relationships that they can call on in
times of stress. These may literally be lifesaving.
It has long been thought that women's predilection for social
support may be a necessary outgrowth of raising children. Nurturing by
definition requires tending to the needs of another.
But it turns out that the human brain -- men's as well as women's -- is
wired for cooperation.
Scientists at Emory University in Atlanta took brain scans of real
people in situations where they could choose to cooperate or gain an
advantage by betraying each other (not to worry: it was a game, called
prisoner's dilemma). The scans show that people cooperate because it
feels good to do so.
When they do, they activate nerve circuits that are basic parts of
the brain's reward system. These are same circuits that get turned on in
addictions to recreational drugs and such other pleasures as sex and
eating and achieving important goals.
"Our study shows, for the first time, that social cooperation is
intrinsically rewarding to the human brain, even in the face of pressures
to the contrary," said research psychiatrist Gregory S. Berns, M.D.,
Ph.D. "It suggests that the altruistic drive to cooperate is biologically
embedded -- either genetically programmed or acquired through socialization
during childhood and adolescence."
In short, cooperation activates a reward circuit, and this
activation may feel so good that it prompts people to override later
temptations to take advantage of others.
Dr. Berns and his team are looking forward to further exploring the
neural basis of social bonds. As one of them said, "It may help us define
why wars are fought and loves are lost."
Tags:
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