SAT scores and constraint vs. risk-taking

[chimerically]

ADDENDUM to the previous post on alleged gender differences (that I meant to post yesterday but didn't have time):

At bab5 eight days ago we also talked about a recent study finding that the gender difference in math SAT scores has all but disappeared, at least for the average, which I take as further evidence that the difference could well be

Comments

[anemone]

This shows there's no issue of intellectual ability--and that's a message we still need to get out to some of our parents and teachers,

Actually, it doesn't. It's a reassuring piece of work in that it says that cultural and social factors dominate any genetic factors, but that shouldn't be that surprising when looking at overall means.

But if means are equal but standard deviations are greater for boys, then the higher up you go in mathematical ability (and the lower down), the more the group will be disproportionately boys, so it doesn't put to rest the idea that you "should" see more math PhDs going to men than to women.

As far as risk-taking is concerned, note that risk-taking behavior is more evolutionarily beneficial for men than for women. I wonder if this is part of the reason why risk taking is encouraged more in boys than in girls.

[chimerically]

Evolutionarily beneficial according to whom, and according to what version of early humans' living habits? Given the *very* incomplete and uncertain evidence we have on early humans' living habits (and how our stories about them then become a reflection of current cultural values and norms), I just can't take any evolutionary biology arguments seriously.

[anemone]

I spoke way too casually. What I should have said is that there's a greater variance in men's payoffs. I don't think that by itself doesn't mean men should risk more

[anemone]

And, of course, even if there is an evolutionary advantage to more risky behavior in men, it wouldn't necessarily imply that men exhibit more risky behavior.

[kragen]

Bab5 is a group of people who meet every Thursday in the San Francisco Bay Area. All of the people who posted to this thread, other than you, are members, although anemone and I have moved away from the area and so aren’t there much.