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Successful women = self-conscious men?

Posted at 5:42 AM, Aug 30, 2013
and last updated 2013-08-30 07:44:00-04

(CNN) — For all you couples out there — how would you feel if your partner got a promotion, won an award, or reached some high goal — and you did not? Well, according to a new study, it seems that men might feel worse about it — than women.

A new study in a journal from the American Psychological Association found that men automatically felt worse about themselves when they thought their female partner was doing better.

In other words – the men in the study saw their partner’s success — as their own failure and suffered bruised egos. And get this — the study says women did not feel worse about themselves if their male partners succeeded — or better about themselves if their men lagged behind them.

They studied nearly 900 people in five experiments here in the US and the Netherlands.