Forgetting Human Nature

Several examples of various scientific and scholarly findings which I've come across today strike me as being statements of the obvious. Now, one realizes that most people probably think that their own opinions are merely statements of the obvious that everyone should agree upon, but let's take a look at a few of them to see whether we can make anything else out of it.

Men and women really do have large personality differences. (Courtesy of Malcolm Pollack. Here's the original study: The Distance Between Mars and Venus: Measuring Global Sex Differences in Personality.)

If men and women at times seem to be from different planets, it may be because there are large differences in their personalities, a new study suggests.

The results show that about 18 percent of women share similar personalities with men, and 18 percent of men share similar personalities with women. But the majority of women have personality traits that are quite distinct from those of men, and vice versa, the researchers say.

Men tend to be more dominant (forceful and aggressive) and emotionally stable, while women tend to be more sensitive, warm (attentive to others) and apprehensive, the study found.

"Psychologically, men and women are almost a different species," said study researcher Paul Irwing, of the University of Manchester, in the United Kingdom.

Bet you didn't see that one coming. Nevertheless, the article quotes a couple of "researchers", one of whom is a professor of a pseudo-discipline known as "women's studies", to the effect that the results are mistaken. As I understand it, the two who dispute the findings are committing a sort of sexual Lewontin's Fallacy by insisting that average differences aren't so great, i.e. that there's more variation within sexes than between.

Bryan Caplan on Daniel Kahneman: people who care less about money actually... earn less money! Caplan (and Kahneman) of course do not claim that that is the entire story behind income inequality, nor do they specify an effect size, but my (wild, speculative) guess is that the effect is very large.

Megan McArdle wonders what we really know about losing weight. One of the points she makes is about obviousness: everyone who is of normal weight thinks it's just obvious what one needs to do to be that way. But look at an example from an extended quote:

The Bridges will occasionally share a dessert, or eat an individual portion of Ben and Jerry's ice cream, so they know exactly how many calories they are ingesting.

The Bridges are an obese couple struggling to keep some weight off. That they would occasionally - or more than occasionally - eat ice cream makes about as much sense as an alcoholic having an occasional drink, or a lung cancer patient an occasional smoke. The "obvious" point here is weakness of will, or lack of future time orientation, or just not giving a sh*t, however you want to put it.

All of these are examples of human nature which we have either deliberately forgotten or conned into thinking were wrong. That the sexes have different personality traits, that some people have greater avidity for money and thus devote more of their lives to earning it, and that gluttony is a factor in being overweight are all things that everyone used to know. But the insistence that human beings are all the same has led to an abandonment of common sense. Of course, the insistence that we're the same must be seen in the light of Who? Whom?

It's not that the studies and articles above shouldn't have been done, but not too many years ago, most people probably would not have seen the need.