New study suggests there aren't great differences between "male" and "female" brains.

dakru · 2015-12-01T22:29:53+00:00

"Our study demonstrates that, although there are sex/gender differences in the brain, human brains do not belong to one of two distinct categories: male brain/female brain," the researchers wrote in the study, which was published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[...]

Instead, the researchers wrote, each brain "is a unique mosaic of features, some of which may be more common in females compared with males, others may be more common in males compared with females, and still others may be common in both females and males."

These are the findings. They're emphasizing that there's a lot of variation in what our brains are like, while not denying that there are differences between men and women as trends. The only thing it disproves is black-and-white views of gender differences that claim "men are like this and women are like that". People who talk about biological gender differences in the brain should (if they care about accuracy) make sure they speak of trends rather than rules or absolutes, but they don't have to abandon the idea of differences.

Let's phrase it in terms of height. Is there a "male height" and a "female height"? No, but there are overall trends where men are more commonly tall and women are more commonly short. This study (from the article contents) is basically saying this but for the brain.

Atlas_B_Shruggin · 2015-12-01T22:58:34+00:00

its the hormones that make the massive differences, not sheer "wiring" and structure. irrelevant red herring study

PM_me_ur_rape_tweets · 2015-12-02T00:14:48+00:00

AWALT is mostly confirmation bias. I never bought it even though I do subscribe to a couple trp ideas.

ThorLives · 2015-12-01T22:50:12+00:00

I don't understand why people think this study has any significance. They measured some things about the brain. They couldn't neatly place all brains into 'male' and 'female' categories based on the features they looked at. It doesn't challenge the idea of a distinctly male or female brain. All it does is say that the features they looked at can't be used to categorize brains.

Let me use an analogy: let's say that we looked at automobiles. Let's say that there are "trucks" and "cars". Let's say that we decided to try to categorize "trucks" and "cars" using the type of fuel they use: gasoline or diesel. We found that, while trucks tended to use diesel more than cars did, we couldn't easily categorize automobiles into "cars" and "trucks" using the variable "uses gasoline" and "uses diesel". Does this prove that "cars" and "trucks" have no differences at all, and that our categorization of automobiles into "trucks" and "cars" has no basis in objective reality? Of course not. It means that our use of "fuel type" to categorize them doesn't work. I don't see why this study is any different.

fundude12 · 2015-12-01T22:11:48+00:00

MRI studies that test broad anatomical differences between brains doesn't really account for functionality differences.

For instance, there are large differences in neuronal connections between hemispheres when comparing female vs male brains using functional MRI studies or PET scans.

wub1234 · 2015-12-01T22:31:09+00:00

I was always sceptical about this anyway. Far too many sweeping statements have been made about the differences between men and women's brains. Most of the differences in behaviour are due to motivations and other biological factors. I call horseshit on the idea that women can't add up and men can't understand emotions. When they are motivated to do so, they can do it.

bromance946 · 2015-12-01T22:01:44+00:00

Even if this is true, it doesn't necessarily explode AWALT, because AWALT might be due to socialization.

TrialsAndTribbles · 2015-12-01T22:17:39+00:00

Perhaps in hardware, not in software. It's like comparing iOS vs Android. Hormones play a big role in brain function.

alreadyredschool · 2015-12-01T22:41:18+00:00

In medicine you always have to wait for the meta study.

gavinok · 2015-12-02T03:13:31+00:00

Like any study, of course, this one has its weaknesses as well. For one, it looked at patterns of brain connectivity, but did not connect those patterns to behavior, McCarthy pointed out.

Useless study.

ThatGreekLady · 2015-12-01T23:23:07+00:00

It's just funny that TRPillers believe in gender differences but don't accept race differences. In my deleted thread I said that there are differences between the races and many Red Pillers were butthurt.

kick6 · 2015-12-01T22:48:58+00:00

Any study that has a self-reporting portion is always a little bit suspect. Then again, the entirety of the pills resides in a very soft-science realm, so you go with what you can.

FromThePit · 2015-12-02T03:13:35+00:00

If men's and women's brains are so similar, wouldn't gender dysphoria be easier to treat with psychotherapy and psychopharmacology?

pandorarosie · 2015-12-02T06:33:51+00:00

Lol I love seeing terper's right this one off...we have a bunch of shitty researchers in our midst. Didn't we just mention that it's GOOD to factor in ALL studies? Because of bias?

betterdeadthanbeta · 2015-12-02T06:59:50+00:00

What do you think? Flawed study? Misleading headline? Or does this explode the idea of AWALT?

I'm just glad some people are finally starting to acknowledge those differences even exist. This is actually a good strategy for forcing BP types to accept RP truth -- just find a study that says something like "hypergamy not as prevalent in women as once thought", and you can get them to finally admit that hypergamy exists.

Not a perfect win, but I'll take it.

MoneyOverSluts · 2015-12-02T05:01:55+00:00

Cool so you have one study to compare against the thousands that say the exact opposite.

5th_Law_of_Robotics · 2015-12-02T13:24:23+00:00

All they found was significant variability and overlap. Not that there aren't general differences in the overall population.

Consider: men are taller than women.

But aha, if you set an arbitrary height and say above this are nothing but men and below it are nothing but women you'll be wrong. There are plenty of short men and tall women and both populations show tremendous variability.

Does that refute the initial hypothesis? Will women suddenly make up 50% of the NBA?

/additionally this ignores the effects of hormones in behavior.

nomdplume · 2015-12-02T01:22:49+00:00

This is only relevant if you think that everything we feel and are motivated to do is a sole function of our brains, rather than our brains being a part of a greater operating whole.

This view would have to overlook the affect of hormones and the rest of the autonomic nervous system, both of which have a great deal of influence over things like our emotions and sex drives.

When it comes the complexity of behavior, you can't look at the brain separately from the rest of the system. It's a part of a whole, not the whole in and of itself.

grendalor · 2015-12-01T22:14:02+00:00

It's not relevant because there are numerous studies that discuss functional differences between the brain, how the hemispheres are wired, different areas firing in men and women in response to similar stimuli and so on.

Title	New study suggests there aren't great differences between "male" and "female" brains.
Author	anacrassis
Upvotes	16
Comments	132
Date	December 1, 2015 9:53 PM UTC (10 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/PurplePillDebate
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/PurplePillDebate/comments/3v2113/new_study_suggests_there_arent_great_differences/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/PurplePillDebate/new-study-suggests-there-arent-great-differences.278167 https://theredarchive.com/post/278167

Comments