The Scientific Reason Your Boyfriend Will Never Admit When He's Wrong
Hint: It's not because he's right.
Andriiii / Shutterstock I knew it. I knew there had to be a reason why my boyfriend never admits he was wrong. Honestly, we’ve been dating for twelve years and this has always been a thing.
It’s usually simple things like when he swears we saw a movie together that we totally didn’t. Sometimes, he argues with me, saying that we’ve never had drinks at a bar when I literally have photos of us doing shots there. He can be impossible.
This is a game that we play, and as I started to catch on, I began documenting our adventures together for proof. Even after shoving a photo in his face of the night he was doing shots in front of the bar’s sign, he wouldn't admit he was wrong.
Here's the scientific reason your man will never admit when he's wrong:
While I’m a fan of proof, I’m also a fan of science, which is why this study has made me feel a whole lot better about the situation.
Researchers from Western University, the Wharton School, Caltech, and ZRT Laboratory found that people who have higher levels of testosterone are more likely to think they’re right when they’re actually wrong.
What kind of people have high levels of testosterone? Men, that’s who.
Colin Camerer works for Caltech and is a Robert Kirby Professor of Behavioral Economics. He’s also the Leadership Chair for the T&C Chen Center for Social and Decision Neuroscience. Camerer goes into further detail about the study, saying, “What we found was the testosterone group was quicker to make snap judgments on brain teasers where your initial guess is usually wrong. The testosterone is either inhibiting the process of mentally checking your work or increasing the intuitive feeling that ‘I’m definitely right.”
This conclusion came after studying 243 randomly selected men. Some of the men were given a dose of testosterone while the others were only given a placebo. Afterward, the men were asked to answer a few questions.
The first question was a math problem: “A bat and a ball cost $1.10 in total. The bat costs $1 more than the ball. How much does the ball cost?” While the majority of people give an immediate answer of 10 cents, it turns out that the answer is wrong, making the bat cost only 90 cents more than the ball. The correct answer to the question is that the ball would cost $.05 cents, making the bat $1.05.
It turns out that the men who received the testosterone scored lower than the rest, answering 20 percent fewer questions correctly. Researchers believe that this has to do with the confidence boost that men with high levels of testosterone get.
“We think it works through confidence enhancement,” Camerer explained. “If you’re more confident, you’ll feel like you’re right and will not have enough self-doubt to correct mistakes.”
So, the next time your boyfriend swears that you never told him about your cousin’s birthday party next weekend, just cut him a little slack. Hey, you can even let him know that you’re forgiving him because he can’t help that his body chemistry is responsible for never admitting he's wrong. This way, he might cut you some slack when you’re being an irrational psycho during your period.
That will totally work... right?
Shannon Ullman is a writer who focuses on travel and adventure, women's health, pop culture, and relationships. Her work has appeared in Huffington Post, MSN, and Matador Network.