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| Science & Technology |
| Sex Differences in Personality are Large and Important |
| 2019-12-21 |
| h/t Instapundit [Marginal Revolution] - Men and women are different. A seemingly obvious fact to most of humanity but a long-time subject of controversy within psychology. New large-scale results using better empirical methods are resolving the debate, however, in favor of the person in the street. The basic story is that at the broadest level (OCEAN) differences are relatively small but that is because there are large offsetting differences between men and women at lower levels of aggregation. Scott Barry Kaufman, writing at Scientific American, has a very good review of the evidence:
For instance, males and females on average don’t differ much on extraversion. However, at the narrow level, you can see that males on average are more assertive (an aspect of extraversion) whereas females on average are more sociable and friendly (another aspect of extraversion). So what does the overall picture look like for males and females on average when going deeper than the broad level of personality? On average, males tend to be more dominant, assertive, risk-prone, thrill-seeking, tough-minded, emotionally stable, utilitarian, and open to abstract ideas. Males also tend to score higher on self-estimates of intelligence, even though sex differences in general intelligence measured as an ability are negligible [2]. Men also tend to form larger, competitive groups in which hierarchies tend to be stable and in which individual relationships tend to require little emotional investment. In terms of communication style, males tend to use more assertive speech and are more likely to interrupt people (both men and women) more often‐ especially intrusive interruptions‐ which can be interpreted as a form of dominant behavior. ...In contrast, females, on average, tend to be more sociable, sensitive, warm, compassionate, polite, anxious, self-doubting, and more open to aesthetics. On average, women are more interested in intimate, cooperative dyadic relationships that are more emotion-focused and characterized by unstable hierarchies and strong egalitarian norms. Where aggression does arise, it tends to be more indirect and less openly confrontational. Females also tend to display better communication skills, displaying higher verbal ability and the ability to decode other people’s nonverbal behavior. Women also tend to use more affiliative and tentative speech in their language, and tend to be more expressive in both their facial expressions and bodily language (although men tend to adopt a more expansive, open posture). On average, women also tend to smile and cry more frequently than men, although these effects are very contextual and the differences are substantially larger when males and females believe they are being observed than when they believe they are alone. Moreover, the differences in the subcategories are all correlated so while one might argue that even among the subcategories the differences are small on any single category when you put them all together the differences in male and female personalities are large and systematic. Interestingly, if you look at the citation - most scientists who did the research are female - these subjects are professional suicide for male scientists. |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #8 I have a very hard time imagining a female engineer saying "It's an ugly sonofabitch, but watch it fly..." I’m not sure ... there have been a great many engineers in my life, and on the whole the females are as charmingly direct about approaching the world as a series of problems to be efficiently defined and solved as the males. But Mr. Wife says mechanical engineers are more s3x-differentiated than ChemEs because MechE is more physical — auto heads and such, which girls tend not to be, whereas ChemE is more an intellectual exercise. On the other hand, that same problem solving approach has led a number of female engineers of my acquaintance (and MBAs, also trained as problem solvers) to choose to give up their careers to run their households when they had children. They generally ended up running the PTA committees that improved the education provided, and later charity committees, as their children moved through school and then into lives of their own. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2019-12-21 17:46 |
| #7 Male IQ distribution is wider. Women tend toward the mean. Males have more extremes. No shit. Wymyns don't have p3nises to think with |
| Posted by: Frank G 2019-12-21 17:01 |
| #6 When Clarice Kelly comes along, there will be time to talk. |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2019-12-21 14:59 |
| #5 I have a very hard time imagining a female engineer saying "It's an ugly sonofabitch, but watch it fly..." |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2019-12-21 14:57 |
| #4 #3 The difference not always easy to see. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2019-12-21 14:56 |
| #3 Males have more extremes. Where "Insanely brilliant" and "Fucking stupid" come into play... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2019-12-21 14:53 |
| #2 "even though sex differences in general intelligence measured as an ability are negligible" Overall yes, but the shape of the curve is different. Male IQ distribution is wider. Women tend toward the mean. Males have more extremes. |
| Posted by: Iblis 2019-12-21 14:47 |
| #1 Reality is real. This is a huge stumbling block for some... |
| Posted by: M. Murcek 2019-12-21 11:07 |