I found this chapter to be both surprising and not surprising. I’m fascinated by how creatively they measured for masculine and feminine traits in men and women. Men and women who are more feminine than masculine tend to live longer than masculine men and women. Women outlived men, and widowed women especially thrive more than women who are married. This is interesting because this controls for gender stereotypes and focuses more on gender specific characteristics. More feminine men and women live longer because they tend to take care of themselves better than masculine men and women. Not only that, but neurotic men who lost their wives cut they risk for mortality by half compared to men who are less neurotic. Neurotic men tend to take care of themselves better than less neurotic men by doing check ups and taking care of their health. Overall, I found these gender characteristic differences interesting because it focuses on the characteristics of the individual, not the broad stereotypes of men and women.
I thought chapter 14 didn’t have information that was surprising. Men who went to war are more likely to die and resort to drugs. Their stress-filled paths are closely linked with heart disease or injuries and accidents. Those with depression are associated with poorer health and increased risk of dying. The chapter also mentions that the probability of developing depression depends on genes and environment, which I believe to be true for other cases besides depression. I’m glad the chapter touched on these topics, though it wasn’t particularly surprising.
I also found it interesting that neurotic men tended to live longer after the death of their spouses than men who were not as neurotic. Previously, I had long associated neuroticism as a negative trait due to the way it has always been framed in my life. Being neurotic myself, it is actually comforting to hear that neuroticism is not always a bad thing – it may in fact promote longevity because it promotes me to be more conscientious with regards to my health.
I too was interested in how they measured the masculine and feminine traits. But I still wonder how valid those measures really are. Part of my problem with this book is that we never really see the data. I understand that the data is so immense and complicated that they probably couldn’t show it all. Also, we all know there is a difference between correlation and causation. The book doesn’t claim that they have reasons for all the correlations they observe but it would be interesting to know about why men and women who showcase feminine traits rather than masculine traits tended to live longer. It is also interesting that you are more often likely to hear of women outliving men, resulting to more women who are widowers. It is also interesting, but also surprising to think that widowed women are more to live longer than women who are married. I would also agree that it is interesting that neurotic men took more care of their health than less neurotic men. Lots of interesting points were made in this book which are food for thought. Lastly, my impression of chapter 14 was exactly like yours – not that surprising.