CDNN :: It's official: Women are better scuba divers than menPowered by CDNN - CYBER DIVER News Network
by DAVID HARRISONJessica Alba tries to console several testosterone poisoned, DIR twin-tank knuckle dragging males who admitted they were depressed because they could not get squared away and keep up with
women in the real world of recreational scuba diving. |
UK (29 Oct 2007) — For years women drivers have endured jokes about map reading and reversing from men who pride themselves on their superior spatial awareness.
Underwater, though, the boot – or flipper – is on the other foot. For women divers are much more aware of their surroundings than men, according to a two-year study of scuba divers.
"Women have better orientation," said Mandy Shackleton, a marine scientist at Hull University's marine sciences centre. "They have a greater awareness of what is going on around them." Women were found to be calmer, less aggressive and more safety conscious than their "gung-ho, sensation-seeking" male counterparts. Men took risks and were prone to showing off. The men experienced "a
chain reaction of hormones" that caused them to lose their "buoyancy control" more easily than women. The stress hormone cortisol is released first, followed by testosterone – the hormone linked with aggression – and finally, adrenaline. "The combination of these three results in erratic, dangerous diving," said Ms Shackleton... | 
