Too many cups of coffee make you feel as restless as a puppet and as highly strung. So the smart thing to do when you're stressed is to avoid the stuff completely, right?
Not necessarily, finds a study at the U.K.’s University of Bristol. So long as you’re female. When women collaborated with other women under nerve-racking conditions (like most stress studies, public speaking was involved), they performed
better when they drank about three cups of caffeinated coffee (compared to decaf). They trusted their colleagues more, had more confidence in their performance and coped better overall. Meanwhile, coffee-drinking male groups performed
worse under pressure. Stressed women often “tend and befriend,” the researchers contend, while their male counterparts resort to “fight or flight.” Caffeine appears to augment these behaviors—and, at least for women, that’s a real perk.
