tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10721624.post8640869241890207932..comments2023-10-30T12:26:15.822+01:00Comments on Research as a Second Language: Science Discovers that Males and Females Differ in Lots of WaysThomashttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04858865501469168339noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10721624.post-24514103957213610302017-04-27T19:17:56.325+02:002017-04-27T19:17:56.325+02:00@Jonathan: I agree that the whole problem here is ...@Jonathan: I agree that the whole problem here is in the construction of the "null" or "prior". Variation is a normal thing. Even those who "celebrate difference" don't seem to get how normal (and actually accepted) it is. Everyone understands that people are different. The activists want this to be an epiphany.<br /><br />@Anon: Yes, that's my sense of it too.Thomashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04858865501469168339noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10721624.post-6322358631587400662017-04-27T18:42:26.552+02:002017-04-27T18:42:26.552+02:00A lot of biologists and medical doctors now believ...A lot of biologists and medical doctors now believe that it was a mistake to do so much animal and clinical research with primarily male subjects. There might still be a good argument for doing very early-stage human subjects research primarily with males, if there's a risk that the drug or other intervention might lead to birth defects (some drugs can cause birth defects years later, even if only taken when the woman is not pregnant) but otherwise sex differences are now considered an important biological variable. (Of course, gendered differences in life experience can also be relevant to human health; it isn't solely about differences of genetic origin.) Primarily-male pools of subjects now require justification in NIH grant proposals, and appropriately so.<br /><br />But all of this implies that sex differences are indeed salient in humans. And that's only acceptable if the putative differences can be spun as favorable to females. A putative sex difference in cognition can be reported as "Studies increasingly show that women are naturally better at [circle one or more: seeing the big picture, focusing on details, working in teams, efficiently conducting solo projects on self-directed timelines, visual tasks, verbal tasks, decoding interpersonal issues, separating interpersonal issues from the task at hand]." A putative sex difference can also be spun as "Women naturally prefer [insert anything here] so it would be advantageous to [circle one or more: academic science, the tech industry, the private sector, the public sector] to organize more tasks in that way so as to take advantage of the unique skills that women bring."<br /><br />What cannot be reported is "Many women naturally prefer [insert anything here], suggesting that the dearth of women in [anything else] may reflect freely-made choices."Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10721624.post-54263714136716272212017-04-27T16:01:28.040+02:002017-04-27T16:01:28.040+02:00ratratJonathanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09371893596402673898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10721624.post-10763815237296934212017-04-27T16:01:14.149+02:002017-04-27T16:01:14.149+02:00There are several things going on here. One is th...There are several things going on here. One is that the biological rules that affect all other animals are not applicable to humans, since everything human is cultural by definition. So someone who would have no problems distinguishing a male rate from a female unproblematically balks at making the same distinction for humans. <br /><br />(Of course we also have to take into account tendentious interpretations of biology on both sides. Much of evolutionary biology, for example, is pure crap.) <br /><br />Secondly, when the biological difference favors females, in some way, then all of a sudden the taboo against biology disappears. Those quoting the study seems confused in any case. If the null hypothesis is that sex differences among the birds are limited to sexual functioning, then the discovery of other differences is actually quite fascinating. Jonathanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09371893596402673898noreply@blogger.com