Men and women are from the same planet after all
Women aren't from Venus, women are from the planet Ngufu in the Alpha Centauri system. At least that's my theory:Men and women are from the same planet after all
IN the battle of the sexes it may be time for a truce. A study has found that the differences between men and women have been vastly overestimated. The study was prompted by the perception that men and women think differently about the world and their place in it — as characterised in bestselling books such as Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus. Such books suggest women are naturally better at empathising with others, communicating and caring. Men are said to be better with numerical and spatial tasks and to be more natural leaders. The new study found, however, that such differences were overstated. It looked at 120 traits including personality, communication skills, thinking power and leadership potential and found that while there were some differences, they were mostly so small as to be statistically irrelevant. The American study found significant differences in only 22% of traits. These included sexual behaviour, where men were less willing to show commitment, and in aggression — men were more prone to anger. Men were also, the psychologists found, better at skills involving co-ordination such as throwing. Janet Shibley Hyde, professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin- Madison, who led the study, said: “Popular media have portrayed men and women as psychologically different as two planets — Mars and Venus — but these differences are vastly overestimated. The two sexes are more similar in personality, communication cognitive ability and leadership than realised.” Hyde’s research, published today in the American Psychologist, collected the results of 46 so-called meta-analyses in which traits had been closely examined for sex differences. These studies themselves combine the results of many research projects. Such an approach has the advantage of bringing together huge amounts of data and can give a much better overall result, especially in areas such as psychology where traits are subtle and hard to measure.
posted by Unknown @ 1:14 PM
2 Comments:
Hey Fjordman--would you like to elaborate on the planet Ngufu statement? Since I know nothing about it, I can only sumize from your statement, it must be inhabited by highly intelligent women.
Seriously though, I think men and women are different, but don't agree with all of the sterotypes. I think a Briggs-Meyer (personality) type of assessment is more accurate as to the differences between people--regardless of your sex.
Correction:
Myers Briggs Type Indicator
not
Briggs Meyer
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