Psychological studies show that women recall emotional events more quickly and vividly than men. Why?

In a study, researchers asked participants to rate their emotional reactions to a series of emotion arousing photographs, and also tested what participants recalled three weeks later.

The participant’s brain was scanned to locate areas of activity while they were performing the ratings and recall.

Female participants rated more of the photos as emotionally arousing than men did. They also remembered more of the pictures they considered emotional.

As for brain activity locations, both men and women show some common activities in brain areas associated with emotions during ratings and recalling. But there are areas of activity that are distinct in each gender.

In general, women show activation in significantly more areas of the brain associated with emotions – both during emotional intensity ratings and recall.