Testosterone prevented men from quickly finding cucumbers in the refrigerator

According to scientists, the hormone has a depressing effect on the brain

Men and women’s brains work differently when it comes to abstract thinking, problem solving, and cognitive functions. Which, in turn, can lead to a decrease in search efficiency, the researchers say.

A brain researcher believes that because of the male hormone, it is not as easy for a man to find a cucumber in the refrigerator as it is for a woman.

Neuroscientist Martha Roa Syvertsen tried to see, explain and answer this question of “why men are worse at finding things.”

“Testosterone has a mild depressant effect on the male brain,” says neuroscientist Marte Roa Sivertsen. – What you see is important. What you perceive with your senses, that is, with your eyes. What of this reaches your consciousness?

She proves her point with a video of two teams playing basketball and a person being tasked with counting the number of times each team hits the ball. After counting, the respondent is satisfied, but he is asked the question “Have you seen a gorilla?” A dissatisfied person will watch the video and look for the primate, and he will succeed: a gorilla walks in the background among the basketball players and beats its chest. This phenomenon is explained by the fact that people cannot do more than one thing at a time.

The researcher’s answer sparked a debate among female and male journalists.

“Cucumbers often have a permanent place in the refrigerator, perhaps downstairs with vegetables. If someone ate a cucumber and put it somewhere else, it could be confusing for people like you who don’t see it,” the woman said. Men, on the other hand, have a different point of view: “But everything cannot have a permanent place! The cucumber doesn’t need it – it’s such a feminine thing.”

“I have complete control over where everything is. I rarely have to look there, mainly because I’m the one who arranges everything,” says brain researcher Marta Roa Sivertsen

A neuroscientist was asked whether “losing a cucumber in the refrigerator” depends on gender? She said that who puts away groceries or cleans the house is an important factor. But there is something else: if the cucumber is not where it really should be, then we can talk about abstract thinking.

Sivertsen stated that in order to be able to see with your own eyes what is not there, you must look for what is not in sight.

If we consider who cleans better, according to the neuroscientist, it would be possible to conduct statistics. But there may also be gender differences here. Women tend to clean more than men, so they know where everything is.

Many people think that the problem is the differences in the brains of women and men: “If you look at the female and male brain: structure, size, and also function, the answer is basically no.”

However, the researcher points out one important biological difference: sex hormones. She says men have more testosterone, which research suggests affects functions involved in searching for things.