Caffeine: It Undermines Performance on Collaborative Tasks for Men, Enhances It For Women

I can't believe that I missed this study reported by BPS research last January.  Way cool.  It compared the performance of men working in pairs to women working pairs.  The researchers placed them under performance pressure, and varied whether they drank caffeinated or decaffeinated coffee.   The "caffeinated" men performed worse, while the women performed better.  Here is the opening paragraph from BPS, which suggested that the stimulant has these varying effects because, when cranked-up physiologically, people tend towered their most natural and well-rehearsed behavior -- which means that men get more aggressive and women become more collaborative:

If a meeting becomes stressful, does it help, or make things worse, if team members drink lots of coffee? A study by Lindsay St. Claire and colleagues that set out to answer this question has uncovered an unexpected sex difference. For two men collaborating or negotiating under stressful circumstances, caffeine consumption was bad news, undermining their performance and confidence. By contrast, for pairs of women, drinking caffeine often had a beneficial effect on these same factors. The researchers can't be sure, but they think the differential effect of caffeine on men and women may have to do with the fact that women tend to respond to stress in a collaborative, mutually protective style (known as 'tend and befriend') whereas men usually exhibit a fight or flight response.

Clearly, this is a "more research is needed" situation.  But, if it generalizes to real life, the implication is that, if you are running a meeting and it is attended by all women, give them caffeinated drinks, but if it is all men, or perhaps a blend of men and women, given them the decaf if you want cooperation and better performance.  

Here is the reference:

St. Claire, L., Hayward, R., and Rogers, P. (2010). Interactive Effects of Caffeine Consumption and Stressful Circumstances on Components of Stress: Caffeine Makes Men Less, But Women More Effective as Partners Under Stress. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 40 (12), 3106-3129 DOI:

Comments

[Rob]

Like you said clearly more research is needed but very interesting as well. Not being a coffee drinker at all it is still intriguing because everyone around me men and women love it and could not go without their morning cup. I wonder what the effects are for say like employment seekers and their search for job listings each morning, decaf or caffeinated and men or women?

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[Michael Ling]

For the paper to be published, I guess the researchers must have found significance at p<.05 level for the hypotheses.

Like the quote, man's nature is aggressive and woman's is collaborative. Caffeine is a moderator... not the mother of all causes.

[Christian Louboutin]

Good point. As I said, this is just one study, but if the effects are replicated in others

[Ellie]

AThe latest psychology research is showing that there's little or no physical/genetic reason for behavioural differences between sexes and that cultural conditioning plays a far bigger part. So I'd say this is probably all cultural.

SteveB, why do we need to take into account the "feminization" of males in many Western societies? Can you explain a bit more what you mean, because I don't really understand.

[steveB]

Then of course you have to take into consideration the general "feminization" of males in many western societies. I wonder how much culture factors in to this.

[Bob Sutton]

Walt,

Good point. As I said, this is just one study, but if the effects are replicated in others -- following your point -- just because
"on average" caffeine has a different effect on men then women, does not mean that it effects all men and all women the same. I especially agree about the negative stereotyping. Still, I am going to be a bit more cautious about giving guys caffeine!

[Walt]

Seems way, way too stereotypical to me, making the assumption that all men are the same and will react the same.

Color me skeptical...