Pink brain, blue brain
by Lise Eliot · first published 2009
8mentions
3recommended by
8HN commenters
2010–2023first – last mentioned
38% recommend63% neutral
A neuroscientist shatters the myths about gender differences, arguing that the brains of boys and girls are largely shaped by how they spend their time, and offers parents and teachers concrete ways to avoid reinforcing harmful stereotypes.
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…because they're more active, they get better at things like sport than girls simply because they're practicing. Girls raised with brothers tend to also be more active and better at sports. I recently read Pink Brain, Blue Brain by Lise Eliot, which explores a lot of these differences, where they come from, and to what extent we can find biological causes for them. It's really interesting, and she gets into a lot of details analysing…
on “Computing Power Used to Be Measured in 'Kilo-Girls'” ↗…http://www.flosspols.org/deliverables/FLOSSPOLS-D16-Gender_I... For background on the mechanisms involved on a micro level I'd suggest the book Thinking, Fast and Slow, and on a more macro level specifically regarding gender, I recommend Pink Brain, Blue Brain. If you want to claim that the highly statistically-unlikely and culturally-variable gender disparities in pay, promotion and participation are not due to sexist dynamics, you need to provide both an…
on “Anti-pattern theater: how to get women to quit” ↗I've read a very good book on the subject, Pink Brain Blue Brain, in which the author writes about what are the really physical differences between genders and which are social differences (basically nature vs. nurture). A good read for anyone trying to understand…
on “Boys Rules, Girls Lose - Women at Work” ↗…the very structure and function of the brain, these various experiences produce sex differences in adult behavior and brains—the result not of innate and inborn nature but of nurture. For her new book, Pink Brain, Blue Brain: How Small Differences Grow Into Troublesome Gaps—And What We Can Do About It, Eliot immersed herself in hundreds of scientific papers (her bibliography runs 46 pages). Marching through the claims like…
on “Monkey research suggests a biological explanation for toy preferences (2012)” ↗…would be extremely interesting! It would appear that the research on the subject is somewhat spotty and often gets misinterpreted, sometimes at the source. I found a book on amazon the other day called Pink Brain, Blue Brain by neuroscientist Lise Elliot, which is next up on my reading list. http://www.amazon.com/Pink-Brain-Blue-Differences-Troublesom... One study I read about described a situation where the researchers…
on “Why Men's Friendships Are Different” ↗…female brains differ from typical male brains, though the extent of the differences is disputed. Susan Pinker, in The Sexual Paradox, characterizes the differences as significant, while Lise Eliot, in Pink Brain, Blue Brain, argues that within-sex differences dwarf between-sex differences.
on “Why do we let sexist creeps pervade the software industry?” ↗…professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the Chicago Medical School, did an exhaustive review of the scientific literature on human brains from birth to adolescence. She concluded, in her book “Pink Brain, Blue Brain,”[0] that there is “surprisingly little solid evidence of sex differences in children’s brains.” > Sex differences in cognitive abilities have been well-studied, so it’s intriguing that Damore chooses…
…intermediate steps of reasoning and no alternative hypotheses. There are many such examples in the paper. About the books: I'm already a big fan of Kahneman. Why specifically do you mention his book as support? Pink Brain, Blue Brain seems to deal with the development of children rather than with sexism in mostly-adult fields like IT, and if its conclusions are right, then sexism of male IT workers is not required to explain the small…
on “Anti-pattern theater: how to get women to quit” ↗