Although primarily a law blog, there is an interesting post up at The Volokh Conspiracy about the psychological differences between men and women. 

Well, actually, most of it is unsurprising.  First we learn that women are more risk-averse than men (duh!), that men are more aggressive than women (duh!), and that women are more nurturing and empathetic than men (duh!).

But then it pops the balloon to the adage that women are more pain-tolerant than men:

Although it is commonly asserted that women have a higher tolerance for pain than men – a belief apparently resting on women’s endurance of painful childbirth – a large body of data refutes that argument. Instead, women generally withstand pain less well than men. A major review of pain studies found differences of over one-half a standard deviation for both pain threshold (the level at which a stimulus is perceived as painful) and pain tolerance (the level at which pain is no longer bearable).

I’ve always thought so.  Nice to see it verified.