Why do girls forget compliments and remember insults?

[Anonymous]

Why is it that a compliment seems to have a radioactive half-life of 24 hours? If I tell a girl she's beautiful 1000 times, she will have forgotten all of them in a week.

But if I tell her she's fat just *once*, she will remember it 20 years later?

Why is this?

[Izzy2102]

It's normal I bet you do it too.
We associate memories with emotion and a compliment is a small feel good emotion while an insult is a huge negative emotion, especially if it comes from someone you love.
And we remember stronger emotions longer and better than weaker ones

That's why women tend to remember more stuff than men, it's not that men have a worse memory, it's that they don't care as much

[Asker]

"It's normal I bet you do it too."
"it's not that men have a worse memory, it's that they don't care as much "

You can't have it both ways. Either I am the same as the women (which I deny) or I'm not because I just don't care as much.

[Izzy2102]

No. Read again.

You can have generally less strong feeling about most things and still attach stronger emotions to negative events than to positive ones. It's human nature to do the latter, it protects us

[Asker]

I am a guy, not a xanax addict. I'm not walking through life comfortably numb about everything...

[Izzy2102]

And I didn't say you do

[catpetter]

Everybody does this.

it is a basic fact of persuasion, sales and PR.

Negative comments carry ten times the weight as positive comments. So do the math. if you give a girl four compliments... and one criticism... you are in a compliment shortage situation... until you give her six more compliments.

[Asker]

That's addressing the imbalance. Not the permanence. Why are compliments *forgotten* ? Why are insults *remembered*?

That's a female thing, not a people thing.

[catpetter]

No true. people... not just women.. have a neurological device to imprint negativity. It was a trauma to hear such an insult, and it probably carried a strong adrenaline reaction to "anchor" the imprinting.

ask any guy who was bulllied and called a wimp twenty years ago to recall the incident... and tiny details will be etched into memory.

[catpetter]

Verbal negativity is powerful... and there are very often physiological reactions to such traumas.

Nothing pays off as handsomely as restraint of tongue and pen.

[catpetter]

I am 100% sure if she had called you limply unsatisfying. even once, twenty years ago... you would still remember it.

[Anonymous]

Oh! True, sorry I don't know why but we do.

[Asker]

At least you're honest about it. Prevarication seems to be the main female trait on this answer...

[Opinion Owner]

You know besides that people tend to lie, they say good/beautiful things they don't feel in order to get sex o just a gf but most of the time a negative comment is real, or you want intentionally to hurt.

The lower percentage just made a mistake.

[zinithin]

Ammunition that they can use against you when you piss them off.
I'm joking of course, women would never do that. Right girls?

[shygirl16]

because you may just be flattering her when you tell her she's beautiful, but you don't usually tell someone she's fat unless you mean it.

[Asker]

So a womans default position is to assume all men are lying when they get a compliment?

Charming.

[shygirl16]

haha, no, but a lot of times both guys and girls will give someone compliments and not really mean them. For me, it kind of depends on the type of compliment, if a guy tells me Im beautiful, I wonder what he wants, but if he tells me he likes my hair, interesting shirt, or the way I do something, then I believe him. I think part of the problem is that girls will just give out compliments to be nice and brighten someone's day, and we just assume guys do the same thing.

[Your_boss]

Because it's how we work.
Women naturally like to make themselves look good.
And men naturally love women..
So when they get an insult
It's like they r not good enough

[kangy]

Bad things leave a deeper impression than good ones. it is human nature

[Anonymous]

I agree with ms. Kangy. I think that applies to men too :P

[abundantlyrich]

She just have a grudge against you.