Dr. Diana Fleischman Discusses Sex Differences Between Men and Women

You are invited to join this lively discussion with Dr. Diana Fleischman. The topic: significant biological and psychological sex differences between men and women.

One of the most stunning differences discussed in this video was described in Attraction Explained: The science of how we form relationships, By Viren Swami:

In classic studies conducted by Russell Clark and Elaine Hatfield between 1978 and 2003, college students were approached by a fairly attractive member of the opposite sex, who was really a confederate of the researchers. This confederate would hang around campus and, once a target had been selected, she or he would walk up to the target and say, ‘I have been noticing you around campus. I find you to be very attractive’. Next, the confederate would ask one of three questions: (l) Will you go on a date with me? (2) Will you come back to my apartment? or (3) Will you have sex with me?

For the first question, there was no clear sex difference - across studies, 56 per cent of women and 50 per cent of men accepted the date. But for the other questions, which could be interpreted as questions about casual sex, there were clearer sex differences. For the question about going back to the confederate’s apartment, 69 per cent of men consented compared to only 6 per cent of women. And for the final, 75 per cent of men agreed to sex, while not a single woman said yes to sex. In fact, every time the study was repeated, not a single woman agreed to sex at any time. In a more recent study, fairly attractive psychology students approached a member of the opposite sex in public places in four cities in Denmark and asked: (l) Would you go on a date with men tonight or during the week/weekend? (2) Would you come over to my place tonight or during the week/weekend? or (3) Would you go to bed with me tonight or during the week/weekend? When individuals in relationships were excluded from the count, 68 per cent of men and 43 per cent of women agreed to a date, 40 per cent of men and 21 per cent of women agreed to go to the student’s place, and 59 per cent of men but none of the women agreed to casual sex.

There are many other differences between the sexes discussed by Dr. Fleishman. It's important to add some context to these sex difference studies, however.  Yes, there are differences, and many of these seem dramatic, but men and women are not from different planets.  They are extremely similar in many ways.  How many?  Hundreds of ways, as documented by Donald E. Brown.  All of us are mostly the same. 

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Happy Neanderthal Father’s Day

I'm speaking up for the much-maligned Neanderthals today on this Father's Day, but not merely because many of us have a bit (1 to 2%) of Neanderthal DNA in our chromosomes and not merely because this population lasted until only 25,000 years ago. It's mostly because I just now stumbled upon this pretty cool Neanderthal reconstruction by Tom Bjorklundart of what a Neanderthal parent and child might have looked like.

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Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying Discuss the Intersection of Transgendering and Biology

I've been struggling to understand the contours of the recent dispute involving J.K.Rowling's tweets regarding transgendered persons. This issue caught my interest in that I know several people who transitioned and one who is transitioning as a 30 year old adult after being in a marriage. In the process of trying to understand the issues, I've read about a dozen articles from varying perspectives plus hundreds of tweets, many of them claiming to be authored by transgendered persons.

Interestingly, those postings claiming to be authored by transgendered persons seem to be much more sympathetic to J.K. Rowling. Many of the postings on social media are intense reads, leading me to wonder whether there is any way to satisfy all of the sides to the dispute. I doubt it and I think I now better understand why after watching the attached video featuring two evolutionary biologists, Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying. I found their comments on gender ideology and biology quite helpful to understanding these issues. I especially appreciate that their comments are well founded on biology, but also sensitive to the need to treat transgendered persons with kindness. I also appreciate that they both deal head-on with the political aspects of this issue, including the need to recognize over-stepping by the authoritarian left.

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Pew Study: Religion Still on the Decline

Interesting stats on Religiosity from Pew, published in October, 2019.

 

In my view, there are also many other forms of groupishness that I see as religious or quasi religious that are not considered by these surveys. I also suspect that as traditional religions melt away, other groups that don't look like traditional religions at first glance, but which have similar functions, take their place.

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Jonathan Haidt Describes Today’s Conservatives and Liberals

I've closely followed the writings of Jonathan Haidt. His conclusions are closely tied to scientific findings. He crosscuts the current American political divide. He is hopeful that we will find our way as a country.

In this recent article at The Atlantic, "Jonathan Haidt Is Trying to Heal America’s Divisions: The psychologist shares his thoughts on the pandemic, polarization, and politics," Haidt explains what has gone wrong with many of those who consider themselves to be liberals and conservatives. What they have in common is authoritarianism populism:

Haidt laments the state of contemporary American politics, believing that on both the right and the left we’re seeing populism that responds to real problems but in illiberal ways. “On the right,” he said, “the populism there is really explicitly xenophobic and often explicitly racist … I think we see strands of populism on the right that are authoritarian, that I would say are incompatible with a tolerant, pluralistic, open democracy.”

Looking in the other direction, Haidt says, “we’ve messed up the word liberal and we’ve used it to just mean ‘left.’ I’ve always thought of myself as a liberal, in the John Stuart Mill sense. I believe in a society that is structured to give individuals the maximum freedom to construct lives that they want to live. We use a minimum of constraint, we value openness, creativity, individual rights. We try hard to maximize religious liberty, economic liberty, liberty of conscience, freedom of speech. That’s my ideal of a society, and that’s why I call myself a liberal.”

But on the left, Haidt said, “there’s been a movement that has made something else sacred, that has not focused on liberty, but that is focused instead on oppression and victimhood and victimization. And once you get into a framework of seeing your fellow citizens as good versus evil based on their group, it’s kind of a mirror image of the authoritarian populism on the right. Any movement that is assigning moral value to people just by looking at them is a movement I want no part of.”

Haidt went on: “I think this is a very important point for us to all keep in mind, that left and right in this country are not necessarily liberal and conservative anymore. On the left, it’s really clear that there are elements that many of us consider to be very illiberal; and on the right, it’s hard to see how Trump and many of his supporters are conservatives who have any link whatsoever to Edmund Burke. It’s very hard for me to see that. You know, I would love to live in a country with true liberals and true conservatives that engage with each other. That, I think, is a very productive disagreement. But it’s the illiberalism on each side that is making our politics so ugly, I believe.”

The key quote from the passage above: "Any movement that is assigning moral value to people just by looking at them is a movement I want no part of.” This is a modern version of MLK's classic advice that is scorned by many modern day "liberals": "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. Why has this beautiful sentiment become so difficult today?

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