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The cognitive differences between men and women

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Re: The cognitive differences between men and women

#121

Post by gehwartzen »

tunesmith wrote: post #103
bayonetz wrote: post #36

This topic has obviously become highly socio-political. The current fashion is that there are basically NO biological sex-type differences; that any sex-type differences are socially imposed and generally disadvantageous to women. I think a meta-study style article like this useful to show all the rich and varied science on the matter and to help spark a dialogue around "what if?". If we assume even half of the impli…

"The current fashion is that there are basically NO biological sex-type differences" - seriously who argues this? I asked below and only got two examples of rebuttals, not examples of people actually arguing this.

Well by definition there have to be biological differences in the sexes so I'm not sure how anyone could argue that.

Re: The cognitive differences between men and women

#122

Post by leereeves »

meowface wrote: post #42
DalaiObama wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Stereotype threat" isn't doing well in replication. https://replicationindex.wordpress.com/2017/04/07/hidden-fig... Money quote: "Research on stereotype threat and women’s performance on math tests is one example where publication bias undermines the findings in a seminal study that produced a large literature of studies on gender differences in math performance. After correcting for publication bias, this literatur…

If "male visuospatial advantage" isn't being replicated when stereotype threat is taken into account, and stereotype threat isn't being replicated when other experimental variables are taken into account, I don't think that necessarily proves or disproves male visuospatial advantage or that it can or can't be explained by stereotype threat. I think we need some meta-analyses here.

A meta-analysis wouldn't solve the problem unless it somehow included previously unpublished data. Publication bias has left whole fields of science untrustable.

If an individual scientist cherry-picked interesting data the way publications cherry-pick results to publish, it would be called fraud.

Re: The cognitive differences between men and women

#123

Post by epx »

LyndsySimon wrote: post #83
epx wrote: post #24

Men are, by far, more violent. This is a major weakness, or "defect". Why women shouldn't have their own, peculiar, weaknesses? I think that even psychiatric conditions like depression, borderline, ADD, etc. manifest very differently in men and women.

> This is a major weakness, or "defect". While I agree than men are more prone to violent tendencies than women, as a group, I don't know that I agree that this predisposition is a weakness.

My English is limited, so I don't have the right word for that. And of course it was not a weakness in tougher ancient times.

I read once that physical violence perpetrated by men upon women was actually NOT that common some centuries ago. Some say it is a reaction to urban/dull life; when life was more violent outside, everybody behaved inside the house. I take this with a huge grain of salt, but it an interesting hypothesis.

Re: The cognitive differences between men and women

#124

Post by gehwartzen »

kareldonk wrote: post #114
VMG wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

from the link > Many thousands of years ago a technologically advanced race of extraterrestrial beings came to planet Earth to mine metals

Yes as strange as it may sound you may want to check my references and investigate.

The references seem to try and poke holes into our current understanding of evolution (and I agree it's still very incomplete) and suggest that an alien arrival is the best reasonable explanation to fill the gaps. I'm not sure that's very convincing.

What's even less plausible is an alien visitor, having all the technology necessary to get to earth, somehow needing humans for the purely physical task of extracting metals. I mean we ourselves are now almost capable of automating mining yet haven't made it past our very own moon.

Re: The cognitive differences between men and women

#125

Post by nyxtom »

twh270 wrote: post #94

The brain is a physical, biological organ just like the heart, eyes, etc. So yes, just as there are minor physical differences between men and women in other ways, there are minor physical differences in the brain as well. Across a sufficiently large sample set, men will on average be slightly better at some things, and women will on average be slightly better at other things. For the reactionary crowd, please note I…

This ^. Indeed, men and women are different and some tasks, mental models may be different over the average. Even traits such as the propensity for aggression as a side effect of more testerone in the body. This certainly doesn't mean you won't find aggressive women, but on the whole the nuances seem quite a lot simpler when you take into account varying levels of hormones and neuroplasticity.

I think it is worth exploring the effects of culture on gender, but I honestly think the simpler answer is one of neuroplasticity and the brains adaptation to selection, hormones and environmental stress. When you stop thinking in diametrically opposing ways of being, you realize humans on the whole (men and women) are far far more alike than we let on.

Re: The cognitive differences between men and women

#126

Post by nyxtom »

The Google memo guy would of made a lot more inroad had he referenced this material.

Nothing in this article screams controversial to me. I also don't see a problem with wanting to hire more women in tech. These differences outlined do not all appear advantageous or otherwise disadvantage one gender over another and lend better credence to being a great engineer. Anything that makes that claim is conflating a false narrative on extremely weak grounds.

Having said that, the memo is a trigger for people on multiple extremes. The reaction from both sides of this reminds me of forums on parenting nature vs nurture.

Re: The cognitive differences between men and women

#127

Post by nyxtom »

danharaj wrote: post #18

1) There are sex-differentiated characteristics of the brain. 2) Those sex-differentiated characteristics tend to be a mosaic in the brain [1]. 3) Despite being a mosaic, statistics can still differentiate sex based on individual brain characteristics [2]. 4) Therefore the current social structures that differentiate the roles men and women play in society are biologically derived /s /s /s /s A long time ago, it was…

Or... consider that perhaps career choice or job choice in a location and/or company is a byproduct of percieved ability to adapt to that community's social norms. Google switzerland doesn't have these problems but it is well known that Silicon Valley is rot with the "brogrammer" culture. I wouldn't want to work there either knowing that's what you have to deal with. Maybe things are better now but it seems a divergence from the previous bro-culture at mountain view is uncomfortable for a number of people there.

Re: The cognitive differences between men and women

#128

Post by kamaal »

epx wrote: post #24

Men are, by far, more violent. This is a major weakness, or "defect". Why women shouldn't have their own, peculiar, weaknesses? I think that even psychiatric conditions like depression, borderline, ADD, etc. manifest very differently in men and women.

>>Men are, by far, more violent.

Actually men are more aggressive. The issue is you don't always get good things out of a particular trait. Violence is negative outcome of aggression.

On the positive note, aggression and its many forms can make you proactive, driven and a range of other things that are also very crucial for success.

Re: The cognitive differences between men and women

#129

Post by [deleted] »

danharaj wrote: post #75
mmirate wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> By the way, Harrison Bergeron was a critical satire of the position you're describing. Of equality-by-outcome? Yes, that was exactly why I cited it.

It was a satire of the attitude of American society towards communism during the cold war. The equality-by-outcome it presents is a strawman, precisely the strawman attributed by conservative politics to people who want to make society more equitable not just in "opportunity" but "outcome" as well. Vonnegut was a socialist and was quite warm to concepts such as "from each according to his ability, to each according t…

[deleted]

Re: The cognitive differences between men and women

#130

Post by throwgoog452 »

nyxtom wrote: post #126

The Google memo guy would of made a lot more inroad had he referenced this material. Nothing in this article screams controversial to me. I also don't see a problem with wanting to hire more women in tech. These differences outlined do not all appear advantageous or otherwise disadvantage one gender over another and lend better credence to being a great engineer. Anything that makes that claim is conflating a false n…

The Google memo author did reference similar material. The fucking Gizmodo leak stripped out all author's hyperlinks. The hyperlinks were how he cited his sources. This fact keeps getting lost on people: the document was not only well-written, but also well-supported!
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