That "Women Cry More Than Men" study got shared everywhere and it drove me nuts

I stumbled on a psychology paper from last week that claimed women cry 30-50 times a year compared to like 5 times for men. The numbers come from a survey of 150 people in Stockholm, but nobody talking about it online mentions the sample size or location. The stats just get passed around like they're universal truth. Anyone else notice how these viral facts lose all their context once they hit Twitter?

4 comments

4 Comments

colethomas10d ago

Yeah but I mean the numbers themselves are a little off even for that study. I remember reading the actual paper and I think it was like 30 to 60 times a year for women and 6 to 12 for men depending on age and country. They pooled data from a few different surveys not just Stockholm. But yeah the whole thing got stripped down to those two numbers and now everyone acts like it's some biological law. It's wild how a single stat can just take on a life of its own once people start sharing it without any of the original context.

amyh1210d ago

Context matters but those numbers still show a real pattern, don't they?

erickelly5d ago

Honestly who even has time to get worked up over a crying study? @blair_chen81 pulling up the PDF at Thanksgiving is hilarious though. Just let people have their weird stats, it's not like it changes anything.

blair_chen8110d ago

Have you tried tracking down the original study PDF and screenshotting the limitations section? That's what I did when my cousin kept parroting those stats at Thanksgiving. I just pulled up the part where they admit the sample was mostly Swedish uni students and forwarded it to the family group chat. It killed the debate pretty fast once people realized the "universal" numbers came from like 150 people in one city. Usually works better than arguing about it in the moment.