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Dec 21, 2007 10:00 pm US/Central
Good Question: What's Up With Men And Shopping?
Minneapolis (WCCO) ―
The women have disappeared and all that's left are the confused, the befuddled and the desperate -- usually in the jewelry store.
"We see a lot of people who are in a terrible state of panic," one female jeweler said.
"OK, as a woman, it bothers me a lot," she joked.
Twenty percent of men end up shopping right before Christmas, but so do 16 percent of women. But here's the catch: While the ladies are finding one last thing, the men are just getting started.
Forty-eight percent of men say it's more stressful than being dumped by a girlfriend, losing a job or moving back in with the parents.
"In my family we call it being on the panic button," University of Minnesota sociologist Doug Hartmann said.
"Men and women have a different approach to how they do things," Hartmann said. "Men will do it in kind of a utilitarian way. They have a goal they're going to accomplish and they get it done as quickly as they can."
He said women tend to be more social and enjoy the process of accomplishing the task.
"For them the thought that counts is not just what you get, but the process you go through to get the right thing,"
Hartmann said Christmas shopping, for some, can be influenced by how we view our family role.
"For men it's just a matter of getting the right thing," he said. "In terms of taking care of the family, it's just bringing home the bacon -- putting something on the table."
And if the husband or boyfriend says that Christmas shopping is bad for his health, he may be on to something.
A British researcher put heart-rate and blood pressure monitors on 40 men and women and sent them into London stores during Christmas.
Every single man had considerable increases in blood pressure and heart rate, while only one in four of the women experienced any change.
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