If you go by the preconception that women prioritise relationships while men are more focused on themselves and their achievements, you’re wrong. In fact, it’s the other way round — males put love before career.

A team of international researchers has carried out a study and found that men are more willing than the fair sex to sacrifice achievement goals for a romantic relationship, the Science Daily has reported.

Emotional support

According to lead researcher Sharon Danoff-Burg of the University of Albany, “In our study, women have been strongly committed to working towards a successful career and are therefore hesitant to abandon their goals for a romantic relationship. “In contrast to women, men also appear to derive more emotional support from their opposite-sex relationships than their same-sex friendships.”

Before coming to the conclusion, the team looked at whether personality traits influence students’ life goals, and focused on the relative importance of romantic relationships and achievement goals in particular.

A total of 237 undergraduate students (80 men and 157 women aged 16 to 25 years), from the psychology department at a United States state university, completed questionnaires measuring personality traits and life goals.

In particular, the researchers looked at ‘agency’, or the focus on oneself and the formation of separations, including self-assertion, self-protection, and self-direction, as well as ‘communion’, or the focus on other people and relationships, which involves group participation, co-operation and formation of attachments.