Men are 'significantly' more likely to pick arguments than women

"During the task, each round started with a black screen displaying 'Ready' in white text. One second later, 'Set' appeared, and then 0-8 s later, 'GO!!' appeared, signalling the participants to hit their arcade buttons as quickly as possible. The winner of each round was given the opportunity to deliver a 'sound blast' to the loser, lasting for five, 10, or 15 seconds."

"Once a fight has been initiated, ladies are just as likely to retaliate as men, according to the researchers. 'Understanding why some people are more aggressive than others is important,' said lead author, Annah McCurry. 'But we also need to know why the same person can be aggressive in one circumstance and not another. 'We found, here, that women are more likely to retaliate with aggression than to initiate aggression.'"

Men initiated direct aggression more often than women across mixed-gender pairings, and men showed higher overall aggression across rounds and pair combinations. Women-only pairs displayed the lowest aggression levels and were more likely to de-escalate conflicts with other women. Once aggression began, women retaliated at similar rates to men, with women more likely to retaliate than to initiate aggression. The task involved 104 participants completing 30 Competitive Reaction Time rounds delivering 5, 10, or 15-second sound blasts to losers. Forced breaks reduced men's aggression more sharply than women's.

Read at Mail Online