Mellow old men leave the anger to grumpy women

This was a fascinating headline that appeared in the press last week.

The article claimed that new research showed grumpy old men are a myth and that women, both young and old, get equally cross, making older women grumpier than their male counterparts. In addition, men tend to mellow as they get older and do not take on the mantle of the grumpy old git; however, anger among women stayed roughly the same throughout their age range.

I contacted the research team at Middlesex University who undertook the research and who were incredibly helpful. They sent me details of the research that was charmingly titled “Grumpy old men or calm old gents?”

Of course the media had greatly distorted the research findings. The important thing that came out of the research was that there were age and gender differences to how people react to different anger inducing situations. It appears to be true that women rated more of the situations in which they were tested as anger-inducing than men. Men’s anger dissipated as they approached their mid-20s except for situations known as environmental scenarios. This is the circumstance when you are hounded by a salesperson from the moment you walk into a store or you are trying to concentrate but a person near you is tapping their foot.

How age and gender affects the way people react to different anger-inducing situations is very interesting subject. The research team at Middlesex University are about to start a second round of research and are looking volunteers to complete a questionnaire (I think it will take about 30 mins). If you could help I know they would be really grateful. They will make will available the results of the research programme to all of the volunteers.

You can download the questionnaire from here.

Dick Stroud www.20plus30.com