Study Finds That Women Are Better At Multi-tasking Than Men

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A new study has found that men are inferior at juggling two activities compared to women under the age of 60. The researchers found that when compared to women, men are inferior at multi-tasking.

It has long been claimed that women are better at multi-tasking than men. Although, some women relish the honor, others suspect that men only males use it as an excuse to avoid much work. The study authors discovered that men asked to carry out complex thinking while walking on a treadmill that does not have handrails stopped swinging their right arm as they walk.

 But pre-menopausal women were dramatically unaffected as they with swung both arms freely as before. Tim Kileen of the University Hospital Balgrist Spinal Cord Injury Center in Zurich and his team conducted an experiment on 83 healthy people who are between the age of 18 and 80, according to Daily Mail.

 The participants were asked to carry out a task known as a "Stroop test" while walking on the treadmill. The test involves flashing the name of different colors on a video screen and a participant identifying the names. The task is complicated as the names are written on a color font that is almost the same with the color of the text.

The test is said to place higher demands on the left side of the brain, which controls the right side of the body. The researchers wanted to know it effects on the swinging of arms while walking. They found that women below the age of 60 are resistant to the effect, thus, revealing unexpected gender differences.

The researchers suggest that sex hormones that are higher in women than men might account for female ability to multitask.They noted that the effect of oestrogen on the brain enhances cognitive control and inhibits inappropriate responses. The arm swing may marginally increase the efficiency of gait but is not necessary for walking.

However, a limitation of the study is that it only included four left handers, although two of these had been reported as right handers. The arm swing was monitored by using video footage of the, and tracking how much parts of the participants' arm moved in different test conditions, according to World Breaking News.

Although, it is widely believed women are better at multi-tasking than men linking it with the fact that women have evolved this skill from their high involvement in home and child care, some theorists have argued that the human hunting-gathering period favored men who developed more focused on hunting skills, but women whose duty was gathering food and caring for children were under pressure to juggle tasks.

The situation where the right arm is still while the left arm swings was also observed in Russian politicians including Vladimir Putin. It was previously thought that it has something to do with KGB weapon training and the importance of keeping the right arm ready to draw a pistol. The researchers published their findings in the Royal Society journal.