Self-doubt affects women more often than men

Fear of failure and self-doubt: Women affected more often than men.

(17.09.2010) The Gesellschaft für Konsumforschung (GfK) has commissioned the „pharmacy magazine“ conducted a representative survey on the self-esteem of women and men. The result: women are more often plagued by self-doubt than men. As part of the survey, GfK Marktforschung Nürnberg surveyed 1931 people over the age of 14 - 994 women and 937 men.

Fear of failure, self-doubt especially after criticizing one's own person and worrying about what others think of themselves. These are the factors on which GfK measures the self-confidence of the more than 1,900 people interviewed. According to the results of the study, women score worse than men on all the above points.

For example, 20.1 percent of the women surveyed fear that they will fail in any area, whereas only 14.4 percent of men have the same concern. Also, 27.1 percent of women are regularly concerned with what other people think of them, of which only 22.8 percent of respondents do. Women questioned are also much more critical about criticism, with one in three (33.1 percent) claiming to be very depressed if criticized. Of the men, this only amounted to 23.7 percent. In addition, women are more restrained in enforcing their interests than men. For example, 32.1 percent of women surveyed (versus 26.8 percent of men) prefer nothing, rather than risking their wishes being rejected

All in all, men are more self-confident, do not think so much about what others think of them, and straight out their demands. Whether this represents an advantage or a disadvantage for the women, however, is an open question. Because everyone knows from his personal experience how uncomfortable people can be, who always try to impose their demands, are not plagued by self-doubt or think they can have everything and no interest in the assessment of their own person by their fellow human beings - so hardly self-reflection are. In the end, the study even casts some negative light on the habitus of men. (Sb)

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