Live data from Hacker News

The cognitive differences between men and women

stanmed.stanford.edu

131–140 of 153 posts

Re: The cognitive differences between men and women

#131

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…

I don't think evolution would necessarily favor specialization between the sexes. However we do have evidence that fewer men have reproduced than women. This means men have been under greater selection pressures than women, which would lead to specialization. I think this is an outcome of the length of time that women are fertile relative to the time required to gestate and ween a child, plus the length of time that…

> I don't think evolution would necessarily favor specialization between the sexes.

Why wouldn't it? Other primate species are very sexually dimorphic, both physically and behaviorally. Why should humans be so fine-tuned that there are no sex differences at all in behavior?

Re: The cognitive differences between men and women

#132
post #2

From the article. "Men, on average, can more easily juggle items in working memory. They have superior visuospatial skills: They’re better at visualizing what happens when a complicated two- or three-dimensional shape is rotated in space, at correctly determining angles from the horizontal, at tracking moving objects and at aiming projectiles." From this article: http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/picture-yourself-…

"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…

Great find! The statistical analysis in that article is miles above my competence but I get the gist of it. And I also agree with the comments that I don't think ethical research can show how big or small this effect is because a lifetime of stereotyping can't be undone completely in a single experiment.

Re: The cognitive differences between men and women

#133
Here's an interesting piece by a female Associate Professor of Sociology at Stockholm University.

https://econjwatch.org/file_download/943/SternSept2016.pdf?m...

The paper is titled "Undoing Insularity: A Small Study of Gender Sociology’s Big Problem" and it's core theme is that gender sociology insulates itself from ideas that are contrary to status quo. Do give it a read.

Re: The cognitive differences between men and women

#134
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "us" vs "them" conflict between men and women goes back thousands of years and was introduced with specific purposes. My personal research on this can be found at https://blog.kareldonk.com/sexual-suppression-and-repression... We'll start perceiving everyone as "us" as soon as most people realize what I discuss there.

> My personal research on this Freud and ... aliens . Yeah, right, sure.

Holy crap I'm glad I scrolled to the Summary.

But the author missed the golden opportunity to take a shortcut to the "us". Nothing will unit men and women like an alien hostile mining race!

PUT ASIDE ALL PETTY GENDER DIFFERENCES JOIN THE FIGHT AGAINST THE MINER ALIENS THE WORLD NEEDS YOU!

Re: The cognitive differences between men and women

#135

Here in Sweden if you are of the opinion that men and women are biologically different, people will call you "racist", bigot, idiot, and so on. It is terrifying, difference has somehow become connected to the thought that one gender should be inferior. Personally i don't care particularly much WHY the sexes are different, we are different that is enough knowledge for me in my life at the moment. I do however care abo…

As a fellow swede I don't have the same experience. I instead see many cases of biological differences between sexes (that exists) being over emphasized in order to rationalize maintaining status quo.

Re: The cognitive differences between men and women

#136
post #50

Similarly, some leftists claim that race is a social construct because there is more genetic variation within a race than across them. Except you have genetic tests that easily identify race: https://www.wired.com/2007/12/ps-dna/ and medical studies that indicate the race of patients studied, because it is a medically significant concept: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Different-Races-Are-Genetical... .

Which races are you talking about? The ones leftover from 19th century pseudoscience? Can you point me to a science paper that shows a genetic basis for these so-called races? Not, notably, working back from genes to crazy theories. I could genetically detect ginger haired people, or people with green eyes, that doesn't make those races. So what defines your races?

I have deviced a test that can, with 100% accuracy, detect a dark skinned individualist. I call it "ocular inspection" and it uses eye tools.

Re: The cognitive differences between men and women

#137
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anyone can be the perpetrator of domestic violence; and anyone can be the victim; and we need more support for male victims and more recognition of female perpetrators. But, you're wrong. Far more men than women are perpetrators of domestic violence, and far more women than men are the victims of domestic violence. This is true for crimes of sexual violence, and for stalking. Prevalence and Characteristics of Sexual…

http://www.saveservices.org/2012/02/cdc-study-more-men-than-... But like I said - if you use funding to report violence against men, you won't ever get any more funding. So, you can bring out all the statistics funded for violence against women, but you have a systemic imbalance here. And there is sufficient evidence that it needs further investigation.

You keep "quoting" CDC studies.

So far I'm the only one who's posted a link to a CDC study and it says precisely the opposite of what you've said.

Re: The cognitive differences between men and women

#138

Here on HN you'll be banned if you're not careful too.

Do you have an example of that? My experience on HN is that there exists a small minority of users who might shout you down, but I've never seen or heard of a user being banned for discussing something like this in good faith.

Well the very comment you replied to has been detached for being "off topic".

Re: The cognitive differences between men and women

#139
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.

Because women actually don't see that to be a weakness in men.

Re: The cognitive differences between men and women

#140
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!

I don't buy that argument. Referencing work doesn't mean you just slap a bunch of links and call it good. Build up of context; heck even just mention Google Project Aristole. Are you saying Gizmodo stripped links and all paragraphs that provided reference context and explanation of said material?

Sorry, I think perhaps to me his writing style came off as amateur at best to me. It seemed rushed, wavering, and made irrelevant arguments without proper build up or context. It wasn't until the very end that he even decided to state the context of mountain view to begin with. Reading it made it sound like over generalizations and frankly just a long reddit rant.

Reading through this article linked here, nothing came off as especially controversial to me. Seeing that the author of the memo seems to have some professional background in the field of biology I would of expected better; at least check for typos.

Post reply on HN