For all of you working women out there who face stressful situations on a daily basis - a cup of coffee might be just the thing you need to get through the day.
For all of you working women out there who face stressful situations on a daily basis - a cup of coffee might be just the thing you need to get through the day.
While many of us tend to use caffeine, and specifically coffee, to help get going in the morning and to power us through stressful circumstances at work, a study suggests that caffeine may have more positive effects on women than on men, at least in situations where collaboration is required. The research indicates that when women consume caffeinated coffee, they perform better under pressure in a stressful situation than men do.
To test the impact of increased caffeine consumption on stress and team performance, researchers from UK tested 64 male and female participants with an average age of 22, asking them to complete various puzzles, collaborative memory tasks and negotiation in same-sex pairs after drinking both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee. The caffeinated version contained caffeine levels equivalent to three standard cups of coffee. The researchers then measured individual cognitive appraisals, emotional feelings, bodily symptoms, coping, and performance evaluations, together with dyad memory, psychomotor performance, and negotiation skills under higher or lower stressful conditions.
It was found caffeinated coffee helped to boost a woman's performance in high-pressure environments but the same did not hold true for men. Male participants who drank several cups of strong coffee became less confident and took longer to complete tasks. Men's memory perfomance under stress, after consuming caffeine, was substantially lower than that of women and that women, under the influence of caffeine, could solve puzzles 100 seconds faster than their caffeinated male counterparts.
The researchers said the findings suggest the key to coffee's effects on the gender lies in the way men and women respond differently to stress. They theorize that when under stress, men tend to behave more aggressively in a group situation; whereas, women are more likely to collaborate.
While many of us tend to use caffeine, and specifically coffee, to help get going in the morning and to power us through stressful circumstances at work, a study suggests that caffeine may have more positive effects on women than on men, at least in situations where collaboration is required. The research indicates that when women consume caffeinated coffee, they perform better under pressure in a stressful situation than men do.
To test the impact of increased caffeine consumption on stress and team performance, researchers from UK tested 64 male and female participants with an average age of 22, asking them to complete various puzzles, collaborative memory tasks and negotiation in same-sex pairs after drinking both caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee. The caffeinated version contained caffeine levels equivalent to three standard cups of coffee. The researchers then measured individual cognitive appraisals, emotional feelings, bodily symptoms, coping, and performance evaluations, together with dyad memory, psychomotor performance, and negotiation skills under higher or lower stressful conditions.
It was found caffeinated coffee helped to boost a woman's performance in high-pressure environments but the same did not hold true for men. Male participants who drank several cups of strong coffee became less confident and took longer to complete tasks. Men's memory perfomance under stress, after consuming caffeine, was substantially lower than that of women and that women, under the influence of caffeine, could solve puzzles 100 seconds faster than their caffeinated male counterparts.
The researchers said the findings suggest the key to coffee's effects on the gender lies in the way men and women respond differently to stress. They theorize that when under stress, men tend to behave more aggressively in a group situation; whereas, women are more likely to collaborate.
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