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No evidence that testosterone reduces cognitive empathy

penntoday.upenn.edu

121–130 of 257 posts

Re: No evidence that testosterone reduces cognitive empathy

#121

It's amazing that something so sexist could have been suggested without backlash. Imagine if studies indicated that low testosterone limited or in some way hindered another desirable human capability. People have been fired for it and reputations ruined. Suggesting men are emotionally stunted. Oh that's fine.

What’s your evidence there was no backlash? This kind of finding seems like the type of thing both MRAs and a majority of feminists¹ would object to. I can’t even see the title of the original paper since this one is paywalled. I was going to go try to quantify this “absence of backlash” you mentioned. ¹ It is sort of an interesting question, which majority of feminists that is. Some liberal, trans-inclusive, biologi…

I've got a philosophy/gender studies background and I +1 this summary. The only point I'd make is that "radical feminist" doesn't necessarily mean anti-trans, and of the radfems I know, the vast majority are actually pro-trans. I get the feeling from news and commentary that radfems are overall welcoming to trans people.

Re: No evidence that testosterone reduces cognitive empathy

#123
post #19
post #4

>Prior to this work, the strongest evidence for a link between testosterone exposure and reduced cognitive empathy came in 2011 in a study that found administering testosterone to healthy women reduced their performance on a test of reading emotions. The results suggested the testosterone impaired their performance. That's interesting. Adult males typically have 7-8 times the levels that females do, and females are m…

Trans woman here. Cisgender men and women have different brain structures, and transgender people's brain structures tend to resemble that of the gender that they identify as[1]. So, for example, a trans woman like myself who was born male will have a brain structure that resembles that of a cis woman, not a man. > I know a trans man who, after a few months of testosterone, claimed it was "night and day" in how they…

Depending on the study, 30%-85% of young people who identify as trans will desist by adulthood if not medically transitioned. Do their brains change back to their birth sex when that happens?

Re: No evidence that testosterone reduces cognitive empathy

#124

It's amazing that something so sexist could have been suggested without backlash. Imagine if studies indicated that low testosterone limited or in some way hindered another desirable human capability. People have been fired for it and reputations ruined. Suggesting men are emotionally stunted. Oh that's fine.

[deleted]

Re: No evidence that testosterone reduces cognitive empathy

#125

It's amazing that something so sexist could have been suggested without backlash. Imagine if studies indicated that low testosterone limited or in some way hindered another desirable human capability. People have been fired for it and reputations ruined. Suggesting men are emotionally stunted. Oh that's fine.

Well there is a statistically (very) significant difference in the (diagnosed) rate of autism between men and women, so it's not so audacious a claim.

Re: No evidence that testosterone reduces cognitive empathy

#128
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is still strong evidence that excess testosterone causes anger and other undesirable effects [0]. Why should there be a backlash when there is evidence? On the other hand, it has been an accepted truism for many decades that the female brain is less capable of many tasks, and I haven't seen firings and ruined reputations over this. The science of this is now being seriously questioned. [0] https://academic.oup.…

>the female brain is less capable of many tasks That's a very problematic and dangerous phrasing. There is also no such thing as the female brain. There are distributions of biology.

And there's no such thing as a wealthy country, just distributions of wealthy people. Yet we all understand what it means when someone says "wealthy country"

Re: No evidence that testosterone reduces cognitive empathy

#130

Another victim in the "replication crisis" bloodbath for psychology. Personally, I'm probably going to wait 5 years before I believe any psychology science claim. Especially if it confirms something I already believe in :)

Yes, this has been a disaster that will be written about in the history books. I hope they take down all the TED talks about these papers that have been debunked.

In hindsight, it is kind of funny in a dark-humor way.

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