Reply #64: Am I the only one who doesn't particularly like this study? [View All]

Maybe it's the research I've done on all the old "proofs" that women were inherently intellectually inferior to--or at least markedly different from--men, all the nuanced forms that basic premise has taken through the years, and all the ways it has been used to hold women back. The same type of "research" has been used to claim that blacks were intellectually inferior to whites, the poor to the wealthy, etc. To accept as a given the irredeemable intellectual inferiority of any large group of people is incredibly wrong, counterproductive, and IMHO, pretty damn depressing.

While I don't deny studies indicating differences in cognitive functions between groups of people have a scientific validity, or even that they perhaps have something to tell us about who we are and how we work, they simply fail to address the basic question: are these cognitive differences the cause, or in fact the *result* of differences between groups? Why do reports in the media about these studies and their findings fail to even address the repeatedly proven fact that conditioning affects the way our minds work? I see no reason at all that *choosing* to interpret information from the world around you a certain way isn't going to affect the way your brain processes that information.

I'm looking at this thread and seeing the harm that this report is already inflicting...there's no need to argue with the other side if you can just tell yourself that they're hopelessly stupid and never gonna get it. The point is, where the hell is that gonna get us?