Teenage girls ‘dumb down’ for boys: Study

London, Aug 9 (IANS) Do you act dumb at times so that your boyfriend never leaves you? You are not alone.

According to an interesting study, young teenage girls often feel the need to play down how intelligent they are so that they do not intimidate their male peers.

Young people try to adapt their behaviour according to these pressures to fit into society.

“One of the pressures is that young men must be more dominant – cleverer, stronger, taller, funnier – than young women, and that being in a relationship with a woman who is more intelligent will undermine their masculinity,” said Maria do Mar Pereira from the University of Warwick in Britain.

To prove her point, Pereira spent three months with a class of children aged around 14 years.

She participated in every aspect of the school day.

This included attending classes, taking exams, eating lunch with students and going with them to shopping centres after school, Irish health reported.

She found that girls often felt the need to “dumb down” their intelligence.

It is not that only girls are at risk here.

“The belief that men have to be dominant over women makes boys feel constantly anxious and under pressure to prove their power,” she said.