Studies Suggest Men Handle Pain Better

“So 81 folks agreed to stick their hand in a bucket of swirling ice water to see how long they could stand the pain. Some were offered $1 to keep it in the near-freezing water for five minutes, others $20, so the researchers could determine if a higher reward made any difference than the lesser, which amounted to just a nickel for every 15 seconds.”

They found that the extra $19 made a big difference in whether or not men were willing to leave their hands in the water, whereas it didn’t make a difference to the women. From this, they concluded that men really did have a higher tolerance to pain, and weren’t just being macho about it. I think their conclusions are absurd. I’ve seen men do incredibly stupid stuff for money. Eat an entire glob of wasabi. Drink hot sauce (in Texas, not California). Stick 8 quarters up each nostril (seriously). Drop their pants in front of complete strangers. Drop their pants in front of people that weren’t complete strangers. I don’t see why ice water should be any different. Men are just weird.