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[AUDIO FIXED] The Truth Cannot be Sexist - Steven Pinker on the biology of sex differences

Gravitahn

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  • Recommended by 6 people, in Hacker News, across 4 different months.
  • Presented by Steven Pinker, as the video describes them
  • Debated among experts. Its central claim is contested, so look for the other side.

Assumes interest and some biology. Education, not medical advice.

271K views9 years ago6 recommendations

Brain and nervesGenetics and genomicsNeuroscience

Steven Pinker discusses the biological and evolutionary factors contributing to sex differences in cognitive profiles and career preferences.

NOTE: This is a re-upload of a previous video, with much improved audio. Otherwise, the content is identical. This is an excerpt of an April 22, 2005 debate between Steven Pinker and Elizabeth Spelke on the subject of under-representation of women in science. This was at least partially inspired by an incident involving former Harvard president Lawrence Summers, whose public comments speculating on possible explanations for gender disparity in science were widely misinterpreted and taken out of context. This video includes only Steven Pinker's prepared portion. It does not include Elizabeth Spelke's presentation, the dialogue between the two speakers or the Q&A section. You can view the entire 2-hour event here: youtube.com/watch?v=-Hb3oe7-PJ8 The Science of Gender and Science A Conversation with Steven Pinker and Elizabeth Spelke April 22, 2005 =========================== Steven Pinker is a professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. He conducts research on language and cognition and has authored ten books, including: The Language Instinct How the Mind Works The Blank Slate The Stuff of Thought The Better Angels of Our Nature and most recently, The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century. stevenpinker.com

Why it's here

6 people recommend this

What people say. Frequently cited in discussions about gender disparities in STEM as a clear presentation of biological sex differences.

Shubleyin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Telling the whole truth in a post-truth environment”

…ender roles actually are universal. Not among individuals, of course, but among societies, there are no exceptions to these: "M&F seen as having different natures" "F->M direct child care" "M->F more competitive" "M->F greater spatial range" etc Steven Pinker talks about this (and much else) in this speech. Skip to 26:56 for this particular point. link to this video An objective truth doesn't have to apply to every individual without exception, to be an objective truth. It just has to be a consistent trend. So M/F differences like the above really are objective truths, the same as "men are taller than women" or "cougars are more dangerous than goats". (edit: this is not to say anything prescriptive abo…
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js8in Hacker News • Recommends

On “Why Do So Many Women Who Study Engineering Leave the Field?”

I am little tired of this. The research is interesting but there should be more consideration for alternate hypotheses. There is lot of evidence that girls are biologically wired to prefer people jobs, while boys prefer jobs with things. I really recommend Steven Pinker talk: link to this video But even if this was cultural, who are we to dictate preferences of people? I think the whole nature vs nurture debate is a non-sequitur. The article talks specifically about three reasons: 1. Self-doubt. It's well known that it affects girls more. But maybe it's how the brain presents risk-aversion to us? Or maybe it's actually needed for the job? Computers can be unforgiving. 2. Assholes. Sexism goes both ways…
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DidISayTooMuchin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Why it may be illegal for Google to punish that engineer over his now viral memo”

If you're looking for a more scientifically inclined video about this topic, take a look here: link to this video (The Truth Cannot be Sexist - Steven Pinker on the biology of sex differences)
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onliin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Why it may be illegal for Google to punish that engineer over his now viral memo”

…nces may explain why we don’t see equal representation of women in tech and leadership. Many of these differences are small and there’s significant overlap between men and women, so you can’t say anything about an individual given these population level distributions. It is also not an extremist position to take, it's the scientific consensus. See link to this video for an example stating the same thing with almost the same words. And that's not coming from someone unqualified.…
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onliin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Why it may be illegal for Google to punish that engineer over his now viral memo”

> The "scientific consensus" is that women are inherently genetically hard-coded to not be as good at or interested in computer programming? I did not say that, did I? The scientific consensus is that there are biological differences that have an influence on job fit and job choices. But we are talking statistics here, there are always people from the other sex that are a good fit for a specific work. Did you watch the video I linked? link to this video . Really, watch it. Also, the Google memo explicitly did not say that women should not be coders. If you think that, this is the warped media representation of the memo you are talking about, not its actual content.
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onliin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Google Can't Seem to Tolerate Diversity”

If you want to see to which points science does have something to say, you might be interested in watching link to this video . This presentation by Steven Pinker got posted yesterday in one of the other comment threads, and I found it to be an excellent pre-existing discussion of the merits of the memo.
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onliin Hacker News • Recommends

On “Google Can't Seem to Tolerate Diversity”

You're welcome :) If you are a bit interested in more references (those claims sound horrible, but they are not as far-fetched as they sound), have a look at link to this video . It's a presentation by Steven Pinker that explains a lot about what science actually has to say about biological differences, and in an aside at the end even mentions stereotypes. I already mentioned it in a subthread to this post, no harm intended.
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stcredzeroin Hacker News • Recommends

On “James Damore has filed a class action lawsuit against Google”

In short, yes. You should look up the book which is cited in this video, and you should listen to the discussion of the prologue: link to this video Since the human brain and its interaction with culture is very complicated, more research is needed. But a fair reading of what we have so far would seem to indicate: it's both. Beware of ideological just-so stories that make you feel good. Also, if it sounds messy and complicated, it sounds like actual biology and psychology.
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ac2018-02-14in Hacker News • Recommends

On “Sex and STEM: Stubborn Facts and Stubborn Ideologies”

…fferent from women (with men more likely to prioritize status at the expense of family , the opposite of women). Another notable difference (again in the summary statistics, not the entire distribution) is that men prefer careers that are thing -centered over people -centered. I wish statistics were better understood by the general population. 0 link to this video…
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Shubleyin Hacker News • Mentions

On “Why Do So Many Incompetent Men Become Leaders? (2013)”

I'm sorry but this is pure myth. There has never been a human society where primary political/executive power was vested in women, except some developed and recent examples. The idea of tribes controlled by women just never happened; not once. It's wishful revisionism motivated by modern politics. Pinker discusses this a bit in this speech link to this video And of course other have noted the male dominance in pretty much all the similar primate species. Human are brute animals, nothing more. And no, just because (pre)historically it was this way doesn't mean I'm saying it ought to be this way everywhere and forever. Natural != ideal.
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Banthumin Hacker News • Mentions

On “The Gender Pay Gap Is Largely Because of Motherhood”

…this" and "this kind of person must only do this". The first is often correct, the second is the one that's problematic. Women will always be more linked to children, and that's fine. We shouldn't try to hammer humans into an ideologically-defined artificial shape, even if it's "equal". That's a recipe for great sadness. Just let people be. 1 - link to this video…
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josephgin Hacker News • Mentions

On “About This Googler's Manifesto”

Alright, I'll bite. But, I've never heard of any research suggesting women have a different cognitive capacity than men. I read some research a number of years ago suggesting cross-culturally women had better language skills than men, but I don't know if this is still considered to be true. I can't remember reading anything in the manifesto which suggested women are less capable as software engineers. The essay did suggest women were less interested in programming than men (obviously true - see enrolment figures) and that at least some of the effect size is due to biological factors (probably true - see below). --- None of these links suggest any capacity difference. Only that there is a bio…
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stcredzeroin Hacker News • Mentions

On “James Damore has filed a class action lawsuit against Google”

…that direction lies madness, clearly. However, to then take a knee-jerk ideological stance towards science and declare that everyone must be equal inside is just the West's version of Lysenkoism. link As is usually the case, reality is complex, requires a nuanced understanding, and might sound depressing if you give it a pessimistic read: link link to this video…
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stcredzeroin Hacker News • Mentions

On “James Damore has filed a class action lawsuit against Google”

And what, specifically, would those differences be? The balance of the evidence, is that there are some biological differences in preferences. Both biological and cultural factors are at play. As groups, women and men are about the same in terms of average IQ, however, men tend to have a higher population of the extreme outliers. (Both extremely smart men and extremely stupid men.) link to this video link link
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