While the same is not true for women, it appears that men do not bask in the glory of having wives or girlfriends that are successful. The subconscious self-esteem of men might actually be bruised when their partner succeeds, according to a new study published by the American Psychological Association.

It didn’t appear to matter if their partner was intelligent or an excellent hostess, men were still more likely to subconsciously feel worse about themselves when their female partner succeeded compared to when she failed. However, women’s self-esteem was not affected when their male partners succeeded or failed.

“It makes sense that a man might feel threatened if his girlfriend outperforms him in something they’re doing together, such as trying to lose weight,” said the study’s lead author, Kate Ratliff, PhD, of the University of Florida. “But this research found evidence that men automatically interpret a partner’s success as their own failure, even when they’re not in direct competition”

Men tended to feel worse about themselves when they thought about a time that their female partner had thrived at something in which they had failed themselves, the findings showed. Researchers studied 896 participants in five different experiments.

In one experiment, 32 couples from the University of Virginia were given a test about problem solving and social intelligence and told their partner scored in either the top or bottom 12 percent of all the students at the university. Just hearing that their partner had scored well or poorly on the test did not appear to have any effect on how each said they felt.

Participants were also given a test to determine how they felt subconsciously about how their partner performed. On this test, a computer tracked how quickly each person associated good or bad words with themselves.

Men who were told that their female partner scored in the top 12 percent showed a significantly lower self-esteem than men who were told their female partner scored in the bottom 12 percent. Participants were not given any information in regards to their own performance.

These findings were similar to those of two other studies conducted in the Netherlands. While the Netherlands has one of the smallest gender gaps in labor, education and politics, according to the United Nations’ Gender Equality Index, Dutch men still felt bad about themselves when their partners succeeded just like American men.

This study is published online in the APA’s Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.