*Updated below
Why is it that when I type the phrase "men dumber than women" into Google (thanks, Think Tank Boss, for a research task way more fun than "insurance credit scoring"), the results that turn up turn the phrase around to "women dumber than men"?
That, in and of itself, is worthy of some research.
Or, maybe not.
Human technology merely parrots back the predictable a$$-backwards stereotypes that warp human psychology.
*Updated: And yet, as it turns out, while women and men score equally on IQ tests, men get more DUIs, commit more crimes of both the violent (e.g. 88% of all homicides) and nonviolent (61% of all fraud) varieties, and end up going to jail way more often than women.
Go figure. Of course they need to TELL themselves they're smarter. Facts tell us otherwise.
Committing a crime does not inherently make one "dumber..." It's could simply be an indication that men are more likely to take risks.
ReplyDeleteWell, some people would say that it is "dumb" to take risks that endanger yourself and others and have the potential to get you arrested. And those are the kinds of risks we're talking about. There are lots of behaviors that could be defined in terms of taking risks, like risking your career in academe by defending an unpopular idea. Ultimately, that kind of risk-taking might be "smart," because the idea you're defending might turn out to be important in any number of ways. But that wasn't the kind of risk-taking I was researching -- it was the risk-taking that is purposeless and generally ends badly.
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