<p>Yeah, I’m with you there, aries. I think conditioning plays a large part. I also suspect I have far more male attributes to my brain than female…according to the “science”. But I’m thankful for every single female attribute it has.</p>
<p>I admit, I am ridiculously biased when it comes to “studies” that “prove” that men and women are just wired differently. (In the brain…) </p>
<p>I look for the tiniest reasons to rip them apart. I fit more male stereotypes than I do female and I have since my parents can remember. Even growing up with an older girly-girl sister, I rejected dolls and asked for microscopes and sports equipment. Make-up and heels make no sense to me. However, I was also raised with two parents who tend to break a lot of gender stereotypes, too (not by some plan- it’s just how they are).</p>
<p>Maybe it’s genetic, maybe it’s conditioning- I don’t know. I tend to believe more of the conditioning given how different “norms” are by society and yet how pretty uniform (relatively) they are within a society. </p>
<p>I just generally have an immediate negative reaction to these types of articles. I can’t help it. It is what it is. It probably has to do with how “science” has “proven” differences between men and women in the past (even very recent past, even present!) which has lead to some pretty horrific consequences.</p>
<p>Mom of boy/girl twins here. From birth D was always more social…babbling at dolls, , singing, and talking to the TV, or quietly occupying herself with puzzles. S wanted to walk from the second he figured out it was possible and drove himself and me crazy climbing on anything possible and taking apart every lamp or small appliance he could get his hands on. Neither was particularly interested in gender-specific stuff like trucks or Barbie dolls. D never cared much about clothes or makeup although she did like costumes and imaginary stuff more than S. He had to be dragged into those types of games and then when they played house he was either the dog or the president. I’m convinced they are different. But I agree the science is silly.</p>
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<p>Conditioning and possibly personality type as well.</p>
<p>I’ve noticed more artistic/creative folks can be all over the map regarding giving directions or describing meeting locations. The ones who use landmarks or vague directions tend to really annoy those of us who prefer more precise descriptions or directions…such as a specific street address or a unique landmark that’s small and specific enough* so those intending to meet each other won’t struggle to find it or each other.</p>
<ul>
<li>Had one CLer who wanted to meet in Central Park and seemed to have issues understanding it’s such a large place that it’s best to provide a specific area in said park. :(</li>
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Of course they have brains. But they think w the little head. ;)</p>
<p>Yikes, men and women’s brains are wired differently! Heresy! Where are NOW and all the other feminist police to censor this apostasy.</p>
<p>In all seriousness, this is a topic which needs to be explored with further studies to determine if girls and boys should be segregated in elementary education because of different learning styles. There is no question that boys are doing significantly worse in our schools and for some strange reason there has been almost no attention paid to this problem. </p>
<p>Boys have far greater dropout rates (30%), far fewer matriculate in our colleges and even in graduate schools. I was recently told by a veterinarian that vet schools are almost all woman today. Boys don’t participate in leadership activities in high school in nearly the numbers girls do. </p>
<p>I am convinced the problem starts in elementary school where most boys are miserable. I know my son felt like school was a prison. Boys have difficulty sitting still and keeping quiet which many elementary female teachers expect in their classrooms. Boys need to move and verbalize which should require teachers to adapt their teaching styles to accommodate them. Because the problem has been neglected, boys are four to five times more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD and given medication for this condition. Boys make up 2/3 of all students in special education</p>
<p>I am amazed this topic doesn’t receive more attention. It almost feels like reverse discrimination.</p>
<p>On the first topic, give me a map and/or written directions anytime. Do not give H a map. It will be used for anything other that for what it was intended.</p>
<p>On this:
I couldn't have said it better!!! After having a girl, then a boy go through the same very small school system with many of the same teachers, it became very obvious. D was the perfect student. Very well behaved, straight A's, always doing what was asked, always wanting to please the teacher. S, not so much. He was not the problem child in the class by far, but if he didn't see a point to the piles of worksheets or coloring sheets or "creative" projects, he wasn't the least bit interested. Give him something hands on and you had his attention. He was that way back then and he is still that way at 25. Somehow he managed to learn and become successful even without doing all the worksheets (which, of course, lowered his grades since he didn't bother doing them). We still joke that they are going to take away all his degrees since he never turned in a particular assignment in 8th grade. It was the "feudal folks" assignment. They were to make a cartoon of something depicting life in the feudal system. He was not a cartoon person.</p>
<p>I was so glad I had one of each gender to appreciate the differences. And I know that is not the case with every member of each gender. But many of the stereotypes were true with mine.</p>
<p>I hear a lot of people stereotype based on their own family. Well, here are some examples from my family:</p>
<p>I have relatives who are twins. The girl is bold, loves superheroes, will approach anyone, rides the roughest amusement park rides, and refuses to sit still or color inside the lines. Her brother is timid, is terrified of clowns and any other “character,” always colors inside the lines, and likes to cook and clean. The boy is much more of a “model” student because of his cooperative nature. The girl is the one I’d rather have on my side in a fight. Stereotypes, anyone?</p>
<p>In my family, most of the females are very visual map readers, whereas most of the males want verbal directions. The females tend to be extremely messy, but the men make their beds and clean. Neither way of being is “masculine” or “feminine”; it just is.</p>
<p>There may be some general conclusions that can be drawn as far as males and females, but other than physical attributes, I’m not sure what they are.</p>
<p>I guess I am a “traditional” man whatever that means. I love maps. They allow me to plan ahead and give a visual of my route. Perhaps it’s the hunter in me. I find the new mapping programs and tools useful if I have no map but they frustrate me in a way because they aren’t real good tools for letting me see the big picture and plan accordingly. </p>
<p>On the otherhand looking for landmarks drives me crazy. It takes my attention away from the two tasks at hand, driving safely and getting to my predetermined destination. I much prefer google maps to directions given by landmarks. I guess I’d starve to death if I had to search for my food. As to the study I can only say my wife also prefers maps, however, she is much more comfortable looking for landmarks than I. I am better at knowing where I need to go and where I am in relationship to our destination because I have a picture of the route in my head. I guess you can’t draw many conslusions from a sample size of 1 pair.</p>
<p>The bodies of males and females are significantly different. I don’t see why anyone would believe male and female brains would be the same especially given that they are controlling different organs and controlling different chemical processes. It is a “no-brainer” to me that male and female brains would be different. You can always find individuals who appear or behave like the other gender, but when dealing with groups of people, the differences in behavior are determined at birth based on thousands of years of evolution.</p>
<p>Hey, I happen to believe that there are innate aggregate differences in male and female brains, too. The problem is that THIS STUDY doesn’t support (or oppose) that conclusion. Looking at the map-related brain wiring of two groups who have different hormonal/genetic backgrounds, but who were ALSO trained differently almost from birth, doesn’t tell you whether the physical factors or the training factors built the wiring.</p>
<p>It only takes a few years of marriage to understand that men and women think in totally different ways.</p>
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<p>I’ve raised boy/girl twins too, and the boy is the more chatty and stereotypical “feeling” one of the two, whereas the girl is more reserved and more rational / linear in her thinking. They are just different people.</p>
<p>Interesting, my boy is the more “feeling” of my twins, too. But, I do see some of the stereotypical gender differences that I was told to expect, as well.</p>
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<p>I agree with razorsharp. There is no reasonable argument why such physiologically different groups as human males and females should be essentially identical in the mean and variance in innate mental function.</p>
<p>The arguments here seem to be either a) I don’t like it so it is cannot be true, and/or, b) I have a personal anecdote so who cares about research on large populations.</p>
<p>Research has to seek the truth, not seek to confirm what people wish was true.</p>
<p>Sorghum, how about c), “This study failed to control for a confounding factor”?</p>
<p>perhaps Larry Summers can weigh in. :D</p>
<p>The idea that research is always to find the truth is laughable at best. Mark Regnerus, anyone?</p>
<p>As much as I accept that biological based differences are extremely probably, this is all kinds of sloppy. What is this “hardwired”? Where are these “wires”? Why is there no mention of correlation numbers for these effects?</p>
<p>Brains are adaptable neural networks to start with. The write up itself says that effects are only observable in adolescence. “The brain differences between the sexes only became apparent after adolescence, the study found.” So if in the youngest group (8yo’s) the effect isnt observable why are we talking about “wires” are “hardwired”? Someone is growing wires at 12? Ugh. </p>
<p>I do think though that GP has a point that a lot of elementary schooling is incompatible with typical boy behavior.</p>
<p>One of the few differences that holds up between men and women across cultural and racial boundaries is sense of direction and spatial relationships. It also correlates to testosterone level - a man who loses his production of testosterone also loses a portion of his sense of direction, but regains it with testosterone replacement therapy. </p>
<p>So if your spouse stops and asks for directions, question his manhood. And ladies, if you are giving directions to a guy, make sure to start it with “Head down to where that woman used to sell the homemade wine …”</p>