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The Brain Is Hardwired to Snap

news.nationalgeographic.com

11–20 of 97 posts

Re: The Brain Is Hardwired to Snap

#11
I remember when I was younger I would snap at the silliest moments, mostly when I wasn't getting my way. This went on for about 16 years, so there was a point I was very dangerous to be around if I lost it. What I find interesting looking back is how now I don't really get all that mad and at worse I'll just snarky or rude. I don't know what's changed over time (hormones maybe?) but I do know that unless someone really pushed me I probably wouldn't go into a ragefit.

Re: The Brain Is Hardwired to Snap

#12

> When you look at the subject of aggression there is no more important factor than gender. Something like 90 percent of the people in prison for violent crimes are men. Men have different brains than women, which comes from our different roles during evolution, when the brain was formed. Men had a role of being aggressive, which makes no sense for a woman because a woman was not endowed with the physical strength of…

It's kind of frightening that people are leaving university with a developed hostility toward the notion of sexual dimorphism in humans.

Re: The Brain Is Hardwired to Snap

#13

> When you look at the subject of aggression there is no more important factor than gender. Something like 90 percent of the people in prison for violent crimes are men. Men have different brains than women, which comes from our different roles during evolution, when the brain was formed. Men had a role of being aggressive, which makes no sense for a woman because a woman was not endowed with the physical strength of…

It's a social construct as well.

Look at children: male brains develop differently to female brains. Their blood contains different chemicals. There are differences and those differences have effects.

Re: The Brain Is Hardwired to Snap

#14
post #12

> When you look at the subject of aggression there is no more important factor than gender. Something like 90 percent of the people in prison for violent crimes are men. Men have different brains than women, which comes from our different roles during evolution, when the brain was formed. Men had a role of being aggressive, which makes no sense for a woman because a woman was not endowed with the physical strength of…

It's kind of frightening that people are leaving university with a developed hostility toward the notion of sexual dimorphism in humans.

To split hairs a bit: Gender identity is a social construct while biological sex is not.

I think the author meant sex, not gender, and GP meant gender, not sex.

It's easy to conflate the two in conversation, but keeping a semantic barrier between them will help maintain civil discourse without the risk of devolving the discussion into a flame war.

Re: The Brain Is Hardwired to Snap

#15
post #5
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not at all. He's saying that what likely landed many, though probably not all, of them in jail ("snapping") has its basis in neurology, but flat out states that that response is due to numerous outside triggers, including things like stress, and that our responses to those triggers are something we can control once we recognize they're pressing these deeply wired buttons. That said, I do agree, the story as told here…

He talks about the Carnegie Award for Heroism, which is for civilians: http://www.carnegiehero.org/

Interesting that the the "Deed of Trust" starts off,

> Gentlemen

The first paragraph goes on to talk about supporting widows and children. Thankfully the paragraph does end with, "Grants of sums of money may also be made to heroes or heroines as the Commission thinks advisable-each case to be judged on its merits."

But by the third paragraph, it's back to "A medal shall be given to the hero, or widow, or next of kin ..."

I'm sure that language doesn't bias anyone on the Commission.

[1] http://www.carnegiehero.org/deed-of-trust/

Re: The Brain Is Hardwired to Snap

#16
post #12

> When you look at the subject of aggression there is no more important factor than gender. Something like 90 percent of the people in prison for violent crimes are men. Men have different brains than women, which comes from our different roles during evolution, when the brain was formed. Men had a role of being aggressive, which makes no sense for a woman because a woman was not endowed with the physical strength of…

It's kind of frightening that people are leaving university with a developed hostility toward the notion of sexual dimorphism in humans.

Steven Pinker's'The Blank Slate' explains it well. Western culture has a bias toward nurture explanations rather than nature explanations because admitting nature affects people's perceptions of their abilities and our sense of agency as a culture. If all differences are culture we can fix them. That's why it becomes political.

Re: The Brain Is Hardwired to Snap

#17
post #12

> When you look at the subject of aggression there is no more important factor than gender. Something like 90 percent of the people in prison for violent crimes are men. Men have different brains than women, which comes from our different roles during evolution, when the brain was formed. Men had a role of being aggressive, which makes no sense for a woman because a woman was not endowed with the physical strength of…

It's kind of frightening that people are leaving university with a developed hostility toward the notion of sexual dimorphism in humans.

You're implying that people learn this at university. My experience was the opposite; I took an animal behaviour course at university that presented much of this information. Sexual dimorphism is a fairly major topic in animal behaviour.

For instance, I learned that in every society where it was tested, men are more violent than women. But interestingly, the society itself was important as well; for instance, American society is overall more violent than Icelandic culture, and accordingly American women commit more violent crimes than Icelandic men. So there are differences in between the sexes, but the culture is a very important input if we look at how extreme the trait is.

Re: The Brain Is Hardwired to Snap

#18

> When you look at the subject of aggression there is no more important factor than gender. Something like 90 percent of the people in prison for violent crimes are men. Men have different brains than women, which comes from our different roles during evolution, when the brain was formed. Men had a role of being aggressive, which makes no sense for a woman because a woman was not endowed with the physical strength of…

What do you mean to imply by this?

Re: The Brain Is Hardwired to Snap

#19
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's kind of frightening that people are leaving university with a developed hostility toward the notion of sexual dimorphism in humans.

To split hairs a bit: Gender identity is a social construct while biological sex is not. I think the author meant sex, not gender, and GP meant gender, not sex. It's easy to conflate the two in conversation, but keeping a semantic barrier between them will help maintain civil discourse without the risk of devolving the discussion into a flame war.

The thing is, gender identity is very much affected by sex too. Many outward behaviors that are often classified as masculine or feminine have roots in different hormone levels in the sexes. That's why I dislike that many attack gender roles and other social gender norms indiscriminately. Some of them have a basis in nature and it's healthy for the vast majority of people to embrace them. At the same time there shouldn't be any room for attacking those who don't follow the norms either. And of course some norms are just harmful. It's not so easy to just throw them all out.

Re: The Brain Is Hardwired to Snap

#20

> When you look at the subject of aggression there is no more important factor than gender. Something like 90 percent of the people in prison for violent crimes are men. Men have different brains than women, which comes from our different roles during evolution, when the brain was formed. Men had a role of being aggressive, which makes no sense for a woman because a woman was not endowed with the physical strength of…

Not everyone has exposure to the differences between and the politics of sex/gender identity. I'm sure the author didn't intend any ill will.

The author is clearly writing about something that makes up one aspect of a person's gender: biological sex.

So, the author isn't being as specific/clear as you like, but you're doing disservice to your cause with comments like "What is wrong with this guy?"

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