Men have been found to be more absent-minded than women, a phenomenon which explains why they typically forget simple details like birthdays and names, according to a recent study.
New research shows that age does not matter when it comes to men's inability to remember simple details such as dates and names because they are indeed more forgetful than women. "It was surprising to see that men forget more than women," said Professor Jostein Holmen, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). "This has not been documented before. It was also surprising to see that men are just as forgetful whether they are 30 or 60 years old. The results were unambiguous."
Professor Holmen and his colleagues asked their participants nine questions about how well people think they remember. Specifically, participants were asked how often they had problems remembering things, whether they had problems with remembering names and dates, if they could remember what they did one year ago and if they were able to remember details from conversations. Results showed that men reported the most problems for eight out of the nine questions.
"We have speculated a lot about why men report more frequent problems with remembering than women do, but have not been able to find an explanation. This is still an unsolved mystery," said Professor Holmen. The scientists also found out while women have better memories than do men, they also struggle to remember dates and names. In the same light, they found out that people who are highly educated are less likely to forget details compared to others.
