(kudra: bah, I don't believe it) RE: People don't think like you think they do

[kudra]

I really disagree with this research. I have a hard time believing that anyone could have difficulty answering the cup question (although I can't say about the verbal question). Of course I'll ask a few people about it to see what results I get, but I really doubt they'll match.

But if a difference is noted, what does that prove? For me, it's further case for sexist conditioning, not some sex-related difference (as implied by the suggestion that the 'ability to solve it comes with puberty').

Ps. Don't think that I'm mad at Tilly. I just completely disagree with whomever wrote the article he mentioned and am determined to have my experience disprove it :)

[tilly]

Good luck. I thought the article was garbage when I read it. That it apparently wasn't was one of the more suprising things I have run across.

I never thought you were mad at me. I found it unbelievable at first, and still find it astounding when I pull this out in mixed company. Even though I have seen it work over the years, I still have trouble believing it. My experience is that about 2/3 of women have trouble, virtually no men do. Which matches what the article claimed.

Now it is true that sexual conditioning is impossible to rule out. Through childhood and adolescence there are a number of critical points where people's mental abilities and emotional makeup jump. (Not coincidentally these are generally matched to growth spurts.) Puberty merely the best known. So it could be that you are ready to learn something at puberty, but what you learn depends on what you have been primed for.

However when the sexes perform identically at 9, but very differently at 15, it is clear that something more complex than simple training is going on.

ObTrivia: One argument against letting women into police forces was that it was too dangerous. Well one of the most dangerous types of call that the police get is domestic violence. They hate answering them and lots of officers get injured on those. Well after police departments were forced to let women aboard, someone decided to ask how well they handled these calls. The answer was quite well - on similar calls male officers got into physical struggles and got injured while when a female officer was along she often managed to talk the situation down and arrests got made without violence.

Assumptions are interesting things. :-)