Messy kitchen counters, messy beds or dirty laundry… When it comes to chores like this, sometimes men can seem unaware of a job that needs to be done. And scientists now seem to have found a reason for this.
Experts from the University of Cambridge suggest that men and women see different “likelihoods to act” at home. They say this view, called the “Possibility Theory,” may offer an explanation for why, in many cases, women take on the greater burden of housework and childcare.
Researchers in the journal Philosophy and Phenomenological Research use an example: “When Jill enters the messy kitchen, she finds that she needs to wash dishes, vacuum the floors, fill the fridge, wipe the counter, empty the recycle bin, and consume the ripe bananas on the counter. Jack, of course, sees there are dishes in the sink, the bananas are more brown than yellow, or the fridge is empty. But these perceptions don’t ‘poke’ it – they don’t indicate the relevant task that needs to be done.”
The team suggests that women are more likely than men to see them ‘invited’ to an action, possibly due to social conditioning.
Professor Paulina Sliwa explains that perceiving a possibility or a “possibility of action” can trigger a neural process that prepares you for physical action: “This can range from a mild impulse to an overwhelming compulsion, but it often takes mental effort not to act on appropriate terms. Necessary situations may attract your attention. Missions can distract the sensor or distract from other plans until they are complete.” She says this puts women in an “Article-22” situation, where there is either an imbalance in the amount of housework or childcare performed, or an imbalance in the amount of mental resources used.
Dr. Tom McClelland says: “Some skills (by societies), such as cleaning or self-care, are clearly gendered, and girls are expected to do more housework than boys. It trains the way they see the home environment, the way they see a counter as ‘to be wiped out’.”
The researchers say men should be encouraged to develop sensitivities to recognizing the ‘possibility to act’ at home. Dr. McClelland says, “a man may decide to sweep the crumbs every time he waits for the kettle to boil, for example. This not only helps them do tasks they haven’t seen but also gradually retrains their perception so that they begin to see availability in the future.”
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