BERKELEY, Calif. — Tired of your mother or sister prying into your personal life? You’re not alone. While the women in our lives often prove to be the most caring and helpful in times of need, a new study finds that female family members also tend to be the most difficult.
Researchers from the University of California, Berkeley and Bar-Ilan University in Israel used surveys focusing on the relationships of more than 1,100 adults young and old from the San Francisco Bay Area. Of the 12,000-some personal relationships — including close and casual friends, family members, or colleagues — described in their responses, the research team honed in on individuals whom the respondents flagged as people they “sometimes find demanding or difficult.”
While about 15 percent of relationships were dubbed as difficult, the authors found that close female relatives — mothers, sisters, and wives — led the way in that category. It’s very likely, however, that women ranked more prominently because they tend to be the ones who involve themselves more deeply in a person’s life, while men tend to be more passive.
“The message here is that, with female relatives, it can be a two-sided thing. They may be the people you most depend on, but also the people who nag you the most,” says study senior author Claude Fischer, a sociology professor at Berkeley, in a news release. “It’s a testament to their deeper engagement in social ties.”
Generally speaking, parents, siblings and spouses were named most frequently as difficult individuals. As for who was the least frustrating, participants agreed that friends led the pack, only representing about 7 percent of the bothersome bunch.
In the survey, respondents were asked to categorize strained relationships as “difficult only,” or “difficult engaged in exchange ties,” which would represent people who they found difficult, but still someone they could confide in or turn to for support when in need. Younger adults tended to have twice as many “difficult engaged” relationships than older adults, with sisters being listed most frequently in that category (30 percent) followed by wives (27 percent) and mothers (24 percent).
Fathers, brothers, boyfriends, and roommates rounded out the rest of the list.
When it came to adults over 50, the most demanding relationships were with mothers (29 percent), female romantic partners (28 percent), and fathers and housemates (tied at 24 percent).
“The results suggest that difficult people are likely to be found in contexts where people have less freedom to pick and choose their associates,” says lead author Shira Offer, a professor of sociology at Bar-Ilan.
Coworkers also proved to be among the more frequent folks who respondents had beef with, with about 1 in 10 listing colleagues as the “difficult only” type.
So why do we still keep around those who stress us out the most? Well, sometimes we simply have no choice.
“Whether it’s an alcoholic father whom you want to cut ties with, an annoying friend with whom you have a long history or an overbearing boss, relationships are complicated and in many cases unavoidable,” says Fischer.
The study’s findings were published in the journal American Sociological Review.
And here I thought women were more difficult because they are women. Silly me.
They are “difficult” because we let them be. Wish I had learned that long ago.
Maybe Islam has it right but just shouldn’t be quite so extreme about it.
no treating women like chattel and stoning them to death and honor killings are barbaric.
Their women never seem to complain about it, though.
Because theyare utterly powerless. They can be beaten, stoned, set on fire by anyone in their family and can expect no justice. Surely you don’t think this is a good thing.
I have a very strong willed Christian girl friend that divorced a Sunni type. wow it tried to BRAIN WASH her swear to God it was her faith in Jesus that saved her. Sure glad she gives me such peace. I know I will provide for her as a real man and husband forever.
Interestingly enough, her strong faith in Jesus was not enough to keep her from marrying the animal to begin with.
I call BS.
We all make really stupid decisions, once in a while. The primary thing intelligence does for anyone is make their mistakes more interesting. No amount of intelligence, no depth of faith in a higher being, changes the fact that we are human, and we err … often.
Oh Thank you Great Exalted Master.
Please….in future, ignore my comments. Block me even.
You have difficulty dealing with reality, don’t you. Point out one fallacy in my post that you responded to. You belittle others, yet when someone points out that we all make mistakes, you take offense and again become insulting. Don’t you think it rather hypocritical that you feel free to criticize some else, flashing your “BS card” as referee of the game of life, then taking offense at someone for pointing out that it doesn’t have to be BS because we are all human?
and you cannot take a hint.
No hint necessary. You have declared who and what you are — overly sensitive and wholly self-centered. Now, go back and point out anything I said that was false.
Maybe teaching both men and women to be equally just and fair with each other would solve this problem in the future?
LOL. Man, you DO NOT understand women.
Clueless much?
It started when Adam failed to denounce Eve.
But there was no Party apparatus to denounce her to! In a sense he did “denounce” her to God by blaming her for what he did. But, “denounce” is hardly the appropriate word to use in such contexts. In any case, what most men suffer from is some form and degree of spinal collapse, failing to stand up for themselves.
Pygmalion defense also fails everytime. MGOW yo
are you kidding me? Fischers last quote is so full of bs.
You don’t have a choice ? That goes against all addiction treatment plan core base of change for people. It’s a flipping Mental health fact.
It’s a choice to continue to stick around toxic people, buy that drink, buy that dope, to inject stuff…its all a choice.
He even used a even dumber example…. I a person with 30 years of history with me got cut off..actually many of them did. It’s easy. History means nothing , whent he present you is not the same person…go F yourself you toxic friend…you are cut off forever.
No choice my arse
Feminism seeks fat divorce settlements without prior marriages. Are strap-ons ontological or epistemic heteronormatism problematizing homosocial othering?
“Are strap-ons ontological or epistemic heteronormatism problematizing homosocial othering?”
Yikes! Can you repeat that a couple of times for us, and in English this time? 😉
Ahhh, the question you hear everywhere you go these days….
Toxic femininity.
Why the study? Every married man knows this!
Kind of like the old quote attributed to the great comedian Red Skelton, “All men make mistakes, but the married ones know about it sooner.”
Especially when their wives screwed up but don’t want to take responsibility.
And forever.
LMAO
Every divorced man is also painfully aware of this.
Yep, we could have saved these researchers a whole lot of time, couldn’t we?
and taxpayer dollars!
Indeed… after the government gets finished savaging our pay, then comes the wives to spend the rest of it on frivolities
.
The scientific left needs a study for everything, without a study it can’t make up its mind.
And the entire collective human wisdom and experience.
Looks like robot sex dolls have arrived at just the right time.
As long as they don’t let it talk. If it talks….nope.
hahahaha!
The study was done in San Francisco. Are you sure it’s women and not bureaucrats?
Berkeley is not SF.
“more than 1,100 adults young and old from the San Francisco Bay Area.”
Oh, you and your details and facts and stuff. If you’re going to insist on things that are actually true, we just can’t talk anymore.
(I mean, “Berkeley is not San Francisco” was funny to begin with.)
Oh please!
I guess then using what you may be so is Oakland?
When I lived there twenty-five years ago, there were definite, sometimes stark, distinctions. Now, it’s just one big mess of laughingly over-priced houses and apartments and people with not enough money to buy anything substantial, but enough money so they can spring for “raw water” and ten dollar pieces of toast.
We know where to look for that as it has changed the entire character of most of the counties surrounding the Bay area, Silicon Valley where even their employees have to live in parked recreational vehicles and sometime cars. Nine counties surrounding San Francisco Bay redrawing the entire region according to the stack and pack concepts of the 2030 desires.
I lived in San Francisco, the Oakland Berkeley hills part of Oakland and in Marin County in Sausalito and there is nothing in any of these that bears any resemblance to what they formerly were.
Gay men so often have problematic relationships w/their mothers 🙂
That’s Pelosi-Land. It’s impossible to know if it’s true, half true, completely false, or non-existent.
Most women are just a bunch of money grubbing busy bodies that whine too much
Go MGTOW
MGTOW Is Freedom!!!
MGTOW is Bliss, anything less is PISS!
feminism is great………………for making men into perma-bachelors. More power to the women who are better than men, when it breaks and you cant fix it…………tuf sheet.
My two sons and I have a question. Was this study conducted at the Obvious Institute?
Dr. Obvious Institute for Self-Evident Reality-ness.
It was subcontracted to The Institute for Institutional Studies. Their motto: “The answer lies within.”
Now imagine the headline if the opposite were true: “Men interfere more in your life, because they can’t get on with their own” or “Men need to control others; won’t let people live.”
Hey look!! My X-wife is here.
We did this huge study, paid millions to find out women are a pain in the frickin a$$. Well lookie here……
Well not sure about that! Men are often more stubborn, with or without reason, and women are left to solve most family and household problems normally. Some women are difficult no doubt about it, but try raising 3 children born within 4.25 years and being their primary care giver. That will cause anyone to spend some of that time tearing his or her hair out! It’s a fact!
Duck and run!
Isn’t that like voting for Dems, and then complaining about higher taxes and more regulations. You consented to have kids, Enjoy!
Who paid for this study? I’m a woman and could have told you the same — free of charge.
Breaking news…also out of the deep thinking University of California, Berkeley:
Wherever you go, there you are!
Oh, Buckaroo Banzai, we knew we could count on you!
“I have not spoken to my wife in years. It didn’t want to interrupt her.”
Rodney Dangerfield
Most of the leftist agenda is an offshoot of maternal instincts unchecked and out of control.
A study from Berkeley? Eleven hundred adults(?) from the San Francisco Bay area? C’mon. There aren’t that many grown ups in the whole stinking San Francisco Bay area. And they took the word of a bunch of brain-dead homosexual potheads? Is this satire?
The insane, murderous, criminal, perverse, and useless need love too. Send them to Congress as Democrats where they cannot do any harm
LOL
Believe Me, ‘KALIFORNIA DOES SEND THEM’ as both Senator’s & Congressperson’s!(It’s Nut’z)
They studied “men” of the Bay Area. Take the findings with a grain of salt.
“…because they tend to be the ones who involve themselves more deeply in a person’s life.”
Yeah. You could say that.
But they say it like it’s a good thing vice control issues.
They needed a “study” for this?
Especially that time of the month.
“Mr. Cranky is here for a visit!”
For only a mare $100,000 I could have told them the same.
For 100 grand you can get a pretty good Mare!
This is one of those “duh!” studies. The old proverb that “nobody is happy if mom isn’t happy” is clear evidence of this. What’s worse is that the antiquated legal system fosters and promotes such behavior in its grossly unfair treatment of men.
.
I hope the “Researchers” from UC Berkeley are outed for their obvious misogyny and bigotry!
Women are perfect, it’s only men that are scum. Especially white men!
.
Well, they did have to abide by the ‘Althouse rule’ and portray the findings as women being better. It’s a hard rule in the social sciences now. That is, the root cause shows woman as better “…deeper engagement in social ties…”, “tend to be the ones who involve themselves more deeply in a person’s life, while men tend to be more passive.”
Had the results been reversed, they’d have been portrayed as men being more controlling, and women being more respectful of the person’s autonomy.
My mother… I’ll tell you about my mother.. -Leon ,,,,,,,,,, Bladerunner
This is why some men are going MGTOW.
“Bar-Ilan University in Israel” I had a Jewish girlfriend. One rapidly discovers that where it goes and how often is not nearly as important as getting out and never coming back. Here are two adjectives for those mumble factories: “lethal” and “protracted.”
MGTOW!
“It’s very likely, however, that women ranked more prominently because they tend to be the ones who involve themselves more deeply in a person’s life, while men tend to be more passive.”
Uh-huh. Yeah, sure. Nice cover, there, buddy. Blame gals’ bitchiness on the guys’ passivity.
Althouse rule. The results of all social science studies must state their results in a way favorable to women.
We aren’t ‘passive’ we just don’t speak our mind unless it’s really important. Saying something back to your spouse, daughter, sister in law, etc. will get the response that “you’re just being mean”.
It’s easier to be ‘passive’.
Men are not “passive” just because we don’t meddle in other peopl’s affairs. IT is that we respect choices that other’s make and tend to keep our objections to ourselves. WOmen are more vocal in that reagrd.
I see the Althouse rule applies.
so men are more likely to mind their own business and women are more likely to pry, shocker i tell you. next they are going to tell us water is wet
Here we go again, blame mommy. Get a grip guys. Put on your big boy pants.
We don’t blame mommy. We blame you wives who can’t give it a rest. Just chill, ladies.
If you are some ones Mother-in-law, I sure feel bad for them.
What about the females that participated in the study?
Someone’s mother in law ^^^
Well, behind nearly every serial killer there tends to be a belligerent, domineering mother and an absentee (or doormat) father, so there’s that…
“relationships are complicated and in many cases unavoidable.”
Thanks a lot, genius. I hope you were well compensated for that “Eureka!”-level insight.
Notice how there are no Father-in-law jokes, it is always the Mother-in-law that is the problem?
Mothers in law from hell is a real scientific phenomena, I’ve experienced it first hand.
I would be really shocked if you didn’t! We all have had similar experiences. Whether Male or Female, the Mother-in-law is always a problem.
I got my wife’s parents in the divorce, they’re good folks. Even the now ex-mom-in-law. Taken the kids to see them and gone on vacation with them. The only time they’ve spoken to their daughter since the divorce was our oldest daughter’s wedding.
Yikes!
A Jewish man was leaving a convenience store with his espresso when he noticed a most unusual Italian funeral procession approaching the nearby cemetery. A black hearse was followed by a second black hearse about 50 feet behind the first one. Behind the second hearse was a solitary Italian man walking a dog on a leash. Behind him, a short distance back, were about 200 men walking single file.
The man couldn’t stand the curiosity. He respectfully approached the Italian man walking the dog and said:
“I am so sorry for your loss, and this may be a bad time to disturb you, but I’ve never seen an Italian funeral like this. Whose funeral is it?”
“My wife’s.”
“What happened to her?”
“She yelled at me and my dog attacked and killed her.”
He inquired further,
“But who is in the second hearse?”
The Italian man answered,
“My mother-in-law. She was trying to help my wife when the dog turned on her.”
A very poignant and touching moment of Jewish and Italian brotherhood and silence passed between the two men.
The Jewish man then asked
“Can I borrow the dog?”
The Italian man replied,
“Get in line.”
HAHAHAHAHAHA!
I never heard that one before…thanks for the laugh!
In other news, “Water: Still Wet!”
Film at 11…if my wife lets me watch TV.
I guess I’m lucky in that I have a wonderful mum in New Zealand, no sisters, a sister-in-law that lives on the other side of the world and I like my GF’s mum. My GF’s sister on the other hand I just simply ignore. Common sense could have saved a lot of money that might have been better used doing actual scientific research. You probably could have paid for several rounds of directed molecular evolution or mutagenesis to come up with less immunogenic gene-editing enzyme candidates. The “While the women in our lives often prove to be the most caring and helpful in times of need…” is just sophistry. If things are going to hell it is usually another bloke that will help you out. I’m sure a significant number of those who partook in this “research” play for the pink team anyway and so their support networks probably consist of homely women that give emotional support and not meaningful/practical/functional support.
Or, even better, you could have paid for several rounds at your local!
Hooters, Tilted Kilt or Twin Peaks? That would be a hell of a lot more gainful for sure.
Don’t get married, find a woman you hate and buy her a house instead.
Funniest line I’ve read in weeks. I will be using that one. Guaranteed.
My friend has a new girl friend who told him she is a house keeper. She’s been divorced three times and kept three houses.
She stole that line from Zsa Zsa, the expert.
I didn’t know that. But, it makes perfect sense. She’s another icon I miss.
“She’s another CON I miss,” is what you intended to say, perhaps?
1. “I’m an excellent housekeeper. Every time I get a divorce, I keep the house.”
2. “There is nothing wrong with a woman encouraging a man’s advances, as long as they are in cash.”
3. “I know nothing about sex, because I was always married.”
4. “I want a man who’s kind and understanding. Is that too much to ask of a millionaire?”
5. “I never hated a man enough to give him his diamonds back.”
6. “A man in love is incomplete until he has married. Then he’s finished.”
7. “Husbands are like fires. They go out when unattended.”
Sources: Dictionary of Quotations (Wordsworth Collection, 1998), USA TODAY research
You made my wife laugh.
That’s why the term “high maintenance” is generally applied to women. It’s called science.
If a man speaks in the forest, and there is no woman around to hear him, is he still wrong?
The secrets of life are no match for academia! Imagine – we all already knew this, but did we really?
Yeah, we did.
Does Captain Obvious work there?
No surprise here. My wife tells me she and her girl friends agree that they always hated working for a woman boss. They are all pretty good looking so maybe that has something to do with it. Maybe they can get over on a man easier.
I guess I’m in trouble now.
MGTOW!!
Any red blooded male could have told you this.
Men marry women hoping that they won’t change and women marry men hoping they do change…..and women will stop at nothing until they have changed the man they married….
And then site the reason for the divorce, “he changed, he’s not the man I married”.
Typical.
They needed a study to figure this out.
On the average, women live 6 to 8 years longer than their male counterparts. The reason? It takes a while, but men realize that death is the only escape from a nagging female.
They will take your testicles and grind them down to tiny, dried up peas over the years and you will THANK THEM with your little mouse like voice.
Look what happened to aspiring “right-hand eunuch” Tim Kaine after only a few months on the campaign trail in front of dozens…
It’s been downhill ever since Eve got her and Adam kicked out of the Garden of Eden; women today STILL insist it’s not their fault!