ScienceDaily: "Manly Men" Bounce Back Better After Injury

ScienceDaily reports about a University of Missouri-Columbia study disproving the truism that a silent male is at a disadvantage when it comes to recovering from an injury because they are less likely to ask for help when they get hurt.

The traditional view, which had been backed up by previous studies, is that masculinity was a barrier toward health and recovery because it "encourages dangerous activities and discourages men from seeking help with their problems or accepting vulnerability." According to Glenn Good, associate professor of educational, school and counseling psychology in MU College of Education:

"...what we're seeing here is that the same ideas that led to their injuries may actually encourage their recovery."

The Missouri-Columbia study however showed that the "tenets of traditional masculinity have been said to include the ability to withstand hardship, 'stick-to-it-iveness' and the willingness to see something through to the end."

Not to quibble with the study but if we (LifeTwo) were conducting the study we would not have assigned the masculinity label to these attributes but instead noted what kind of attributes are associated with improved recovery regardless of gender. Others might note a comparison to positive psychology or possibly the Law of Attraction. In other words, patients who complain and/or question whether they will be able to see it through to the end of required treatment will on the whole have a less successful recovery rate than patients who can better handle hardships and for whom failing to recover is not viewed as an option.

What's the lesson? If you want to speed up recovery, suck it up.