Do women stay cooler under stress than men?

Men and women make very different decisions under pressure. But who loses their head?

Mara Mather and researchers at the University of Southern California were curious to see if stress changes how people make decisions. They asked subjects to play a computer game: the goal was to make as much money as they could by inflating virtual balloons. As the animated balloon got bigger, you won more money. You could cash out at any time. If a balloon exploded, if you went one pump too far, then you received no cash for that popped balloon - and you couldn't predict how many pumps it would take: it was entirely random.

Did men and women behave all that differently in the game? Not when they were relaxed. But add stress to the equation and we see something different. Researchers asked subjects to hold their hand in painfully cold water to raise their heart rate and blood pressure. Women in this stressed state stopped inflating the balloons sooner, pumping 18% less than the relaxed women - they chose to take the sure win over the higher risk. Stressed men did just the opposite. They kept pumping - in one study averaging about 50% more pumps before calling it quits.