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honordearlove

Smart People Are More Likely to Stereotype - The Atlantic - 0 views

www.theatlantic.com/...535158

bias psychology research intellegence

shared by honordearlove on 14 Sep 17 - No Cached
  • But a new study complicates the narrative that only unintelligent people are prejudiced. The paper, published recently in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, suggests smart people are actually more at risk of stereotyping others.
  • A second study showed similar results, but for measures of implicit bias. That is, smarter participants were quicker to stereotype the aliens in the course of a word-sorting task, even if they didn’t realize they were doing it.
  • These depressing results suggest there’s a downside to being smart—it makes you risk reading too much into a situation and drawing inappropriate conclusions. But there’s hope. In the second part of the study, the researchers showed that while smart people learn and apply stereotypes more eagerly, they also unlearn those stereotypes quickly in the face of new information.
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  • After all, education is one of the best bulwarks against ignorance we have. Exposure to stories and information that are counter-stereotypical—often the kind of thing you get from schooling—are one of the best ways to beat back racial bias.
  • He also cautioned that “the real world is a lot more complicated than the psychology laboratory.” Historical and social contexts play a major role in most types of real-world stereotyping.
huffem4

Algorithms reveal changes in stereotypes | Stanford News - 2 views

news.stanford.edu/...hms-reveal-changes-stereotypes

psychology stereotypes society bias social media knowledge history

shared by huffem4 on 04 Apr 18 - No Cached
  • The researchers used word embeddings – an algorithmic technique that can map relationships and associations between words –  to measure changes in gender and ethnic stereotypes over the past century in the United States.
  • Our prior research has shown that embeddings effectively capture existing stereotypes and that those biases can be systematically removed. But we think that, instead of removing those stereotypes, we can also use embeddings as a historical lens for quantitative, linguistic and sociological analyses of biases.”
  • Take the word “honorable.” Using the embedding tool, previous research found that the adjective has a closer relationship to the word “man” than the word “woman.”
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • One of the key findings to emerge was how biases toward women changed for the better – in some ways – over time.
  • For example, adjectives such as “intelligent,” “logical” and “thoughtful” were associated more with men in the first half of the 20th century. But since the 1960s, the same words have increasingly been associated with women with every following decade, correlating with the women’s movement in the 1960s, although a gap still remains.
  • For example, in the 1910s, words like “barbaric,” “monstrous” and “cruel” were the adjectives most associated with Asian last names. By the 1990s, those adjectives were replaced by words like “inhibited,” “passive” and “sensitive.” This linguistic change correlates with a sharp increase in Asian immigration to the United States in the 1960s and 1980s and a change in cultural stereotypes, the researchers said.
  • “It underscores the importance of humanists and computer scientists working together. There is a power to these new machine-learning methods in humanities research that is just being understood,”
cvanderloo

Two stereotypes that diminish the humanity of the Atlanta shooting victims - and all As... - 0 views

theconversation.com/and-all-asian-americans-157762

asian american history racism Atlanta stereotypes bias

shared by cvanderloo on 26 Mar 21 - No Cached
  • Since the Atlanta spa shootings, the U.S. media has been working harder than usual to describe and understand Asian Americans.
  • One is that of Asian Americans as the “perpetual foreigner” – immigrants who constantly struggle, never assimilate.
  • Both stereotypes have been levied in tandem against Asian immigrants to the U.S. for centuries.
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  • In the mid-1800s, Chinese laborers made up the first significant wave of Asian immigration to the United States. Recruited during the Gold Rush and to build the Transcontinental Railroad, the men were described by employers like industrialist Leland Stanford as “quiet, peaceable, patient, industrious and economical.”
  • The model-minority myth emerged later. In 1965 the Hart-Celler Act opened immigration quotas that had previously favored Western Europeans.
  • Out-earning all other racial groups, Asian Americans became the “model minority,” a term first coined by sociologist William Petersen in a 1966 New York Times article, “Success Story: Japanese American style.”
  • Without the same educational and professional sponsorships as my father had, many in these later waves founded mom-and-pop businesses and peer lending networks. They gravitated toward blue-collar industries and “pink-collar” jobs in salons, food service or child care.
  • The women who worked and died at Young’s Asian Massage, Gold Spa and Aromatherapy Spa lived in this Asian America – not my father’s or mine.
  • Such workers make up the other side of the high-earning “model minority” statistic. That data masks the fact that Asian Americans have the highest income inequality of any racial group, with the top 10% of this population earning more than 10 times what the bottom 10% earns.
  • When Asian Americans are so easily, and so often, stereotyped, they become categories, not people – not individuals who make lives, raise families and do the best they can in their adopted homeland.
  • “My mother didn’t do anything wrong,” the son of 63-year-old Yong Ae Yue, the fan of Korean soap operas and cooking, told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “And she deserves the recognition that she is a human.”
sissij

Super Mario Run's Not-So-Super Gender Politics - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...-so-super-gender-politics.html

new york times bias gender politics

shared by sissij on 23 Dec 16 - No Cached
  • Super Mario Run begins, as does almost every Super Mario title, with Princess Peach becoming a hostage who must be rescued by Mario. Just before her ritual kidnapping, Peach invites Mario to her castle and pledges to bake him a cake. Upon her rescue, she kisses Mario. The game also includes a second female character, Toadette, whose job is to wave a flag before and after a race, like a character from “Grease.”
  • But Super Mario Run relegates its female characters to positions of near helplessness. Peach and Toadette become playable only after you complete certain tasks, which makes the women in the game feel like prizes.
  • Still, lots of girls and women play video games. There are more women over 30 who play video games than boys under 18 who play, according to the industry’s lobbying arm, the Entertainment Software Association. A Pew Research Center survey published last year found that almost 60 percent of girls between the ages of 13 and 17 are gamers.
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  • The knowledge that video games possess this power, that they allow us to adopt new identities and grant us new ways of seeing ourselves, is as old as Mario’s quest for his princess.
  • sissij on 23 Dec 16
     
    The gender stereotype is everywhere, even in the most popular games. I am astonished that I become so numb about this kind of story. I have just played this game recently and I didn't feel anything weird or strange. It shows how deep this kind of stereotype is planted in my brain. I subconsciously put this kind of story into the category of normal. What we feel is common or right might not be correct in another person's perspective. It is always mind-blowing to see that how unusually or inappropriate something I think is normal can be. --Sissi (12/22/2016)
grayton downing

The Stereotypes About Math That Hold Americans Back - Jo Boaler - The Atlantic - 2 views

www.theatlantic.com/...281303

stereotypes math americans teaching

shared by grayton downing on 12 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • Mathematics education in the United States is broken. Open any newspaper and stories of math failure shout from the pages: low international rankings, widespread innumeracy in the general population, declines in math majors. Here’s the most shocking statistic I have read in recent years: 60 percent of the 13 million two-year college students in the U.S. are currently placed into remedial math courses; 75 percent of them fail or drop the courses and leave college with no degree.
  • We need to change the way we teach math in the U.S., and it is for this reason that I support the move to Common Core mathematics.
  • One of the reasons for these results is that mathematical problems that need thought, connection making, and even creativity are more engaging for students of all levels and for students of different genders, races, and socio-economic groups. This is not only shown by my research but by decades of research in our field.
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  • ways of working are critical in mathematical work and when they are taught and valued, many more students contribute, leading to higher achievement
  • mathematics education we suffer from the widespread, distinctly American idea that only some people can be “math people.” This idea has been disproved by scientific research showing the incredible potential of the brain to grow and adapt. But the idea that math is hard, uninteresting, and accessible only to “nerds” persists. 
  • harsh stereotypical thinking—mathematics is for select racial groups and men. This thinking, as well as the teaching practices that go with it, have provided the perfect conditions for the creation of a math underclass.
  • There is a good reason for this: Justification and reasoning are two of the acts that lie at the heart of mathematics. They are, in many ways, the essence of what mathematics is.  Scientists work to prove or disprove new theories by finding many cases that work or counter-examples that do not. Mathematicians, by contrast prove the validity of their propositions through justification and reasoning.
  • does not simply test a mathematical definition, as the first does. It requires that students visualize a triangle, use transformational geometry, consider whether different cases satisfy the mathematical definition, and then justify their thinking.
  • online platform explaining research evidence on ability and the brain and on good mathematics teaching, for teachers and parents. The course had a transformative effect. It was taken by 40,000 people, and 95 percent said they would change their teaching or parenting as a result.
  • The young people who are successful in today’s workforce are those who can discuss and reason about productive mathematical pathways, and who can be wrong, but can trace back to errors and work to correct them.
  • American idea that those who are good at math are those who are fast. Speed is revered in math classes across the U.S., and students as young as five years old are given timed tests—even though these have been shown to create math anxiety in young children. Parents use flash cards and other devices to promote speed, not knowing that they are probably damaging their children’s mathematical development
  • The fact of being quick or slow isn't really relevant
  • gives more time for depth and exploration than the curricula it has replaced by removing some of the redundant methods students will never need or use.
sissij

The Economics of Obesity: Why Are Poor People Fat? - 0 views

www.institutefornaturalhealing.com/...besity-why-are-poor-people-fat

economics psychology research bias

shared by sissij on 08 Feb 17 - No Cached
  • This is what poverty looked like in the Great Depression…
  • This is what poverty looks like today…
  • For most of recorded history, fat was revered as a sign of health and prosperity. Plumpness was a status symbol. It showed that you did not have to engage in manual labor for your sustenance. And it meant that you could afford plentiful quantities of food.
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  • The constant struggle to hunt and harvest ensured that we stayed active. And for those with little money, the supply of calories was meager. This ensured that most of the working class stayed slim.
  • Rich people were fat. Poor people were thin.
  • What he found is that he could buy well over 1,000 calories of cookies or potato chips. But his dollar would only buy 250 calories of carrots. He could buy almost 900 calories of soda… but only 170 calories of orange juice.
  • The primary reason that lower-income people are more overweight is because the unhealthiest and most fattening foods are the cheapest.
  • Within the current system, the best we can hope for is a situation where public funds are diverted from the corporate Agri-Giants (which is nothing more than welfare for the wealthy) to family farms and fruit and vegetable growers. Currently, almost 70% of farmers receive no subsidies at all, while the biggest and strongest take the bulk of public funds.
  • sissij on 08 Feb 17
     
    This article shows a very interesting stereotyping that rich people ought to be fat and poor people ought to be thin. It reminded me of I video I have just seen, in which a poor but fat woman is trying to explain why now people in poverty is more likely to be fat. She shows us some comments from people when they hear that she is very poor. The vehement reaction and bad language they used showed that this stereotyping is very deep in our society. However, time is very different now. Food is not as expensive as we think, what is expensive is actually healthy food, that's why poor people tends to be fat. My grandpa once told me that when he was young, he was confused why poor people in Honking movie are eating chicken legs. This is the result of the transformation of society.--Sissi (2/8/2017)
jlessner

Should Toys Be More Gender-Neutral? - NYTimes.com - 0 views

learning.blogs.nytimes.com/...are-toys-too-gender-specific

psychology bias education

shared by jlessner on 14 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • Walk into a toy store, and you are likely to see toys specifically designed and marketed for boys or girls — without very much overlap. With pink and blue color coding, and princess and action-hero designs, manufacturers seem to be using more and more gender messaging to sell their toys.
  • In the 1975 Sears catalog, for example, toys came in many hues, and science kits and kitchen sets showed boys and girls working together.
  • Gender categorization provided a handy tool for toy companies to define target markets, and gender stereotypes drew the interest of young children forming their own sense of identity.
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  • There was also a shift in cultural understandings of gender: Belief that men and women are fundamentally different, and stereotypes about women, grew in the 1980s and 1990s despite broad support for gender equality.
  • But while these toys may broaden the offerings within segregated toy aisles, they do nothing to challenge the underlying fact that the aisles are still segregated. And rather than busting stereotypes, such toys reinforce the idea that gender is the primary determinant of interests and skills.
  • Lego introduced its Lego Friends line to attract more girls, to resounding success
  • Or, does color coding toys pink and blue based on gender stereotypes reinforce gender biases?
ilanaprincilus06

Meet the neuroscientist shattering the myth of the gendered brain | Science | The Guardian - 0 views

www.theguardian.com/...the-gendered-brain-gina-rippon

brain gender neuroscience stereotypes

shared by ilanaprincilus06 on 02 Nov 20 - No Cached
  • Whatever its sex, this baby’s future is predetermined by the entrenched belief that males and females do all kinds of things differently, better or worse, because they have different brains.
  • how vital it is, how life-changing, that we finally unpack – and discard – the sexist stereotypes and binary coding that limit and harm us.
  • she is out in the world, debunking the “pernicious” sex differences myth: the idea that you can “sex” a brain or that there is such a thing as a male brain and a female brain.
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  • since the 18th century “when people were happy to spout off about what men and women’s brains were like – before you could even look at them. They came up with these nice ideas and metaphors that fitted the status quo and society, and gave rise to different education for men and women.”
  • she couldn’t find any beyond the negligible, and other research was also starting to question the very existence of such differences. For example, once any differences in brain size were accounted for, “well-known” sex differences in key structures disappeared.
  • Are there any significant differences based on sex alone? The answer, she says, is no.
  • “The idea of the male brain and the female brain suggests that each is a characteristically homogenous thing and that whoever has got a male brain, say, will have the same kind of aptitudes, preferences and personalities as everyone else with that ‘type’ of brain. We now know that is not the case.
  • ‘Forget the male and female brain; it’s a distraction, it’s inaccurate.’ It’s possibly harmful, too, because it’s used as a hook to say, well, there’s no point girls doing science because they haven’t got a science brain, or boys shouldn’t be emotional or should want to lead.”
  • The next question was, what then is driving the differences in behaviour between girls and boys, men and women?
  • “that the brain is moulded from birth onwards and continues to be moulded through to the ‘cognitive cliff’ in old age when our grey cells start disappearing.
  • The rules will change how the brain works and how someone behaves.” The upshot of gendered rules? “The ‘gender gap’ becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
  • The brain is also predictive and forward-thinking in a way we had never previously realised.
  • the brain is much more a function of experiences. If you learn a skill your brain will change, and it will carry on changing.”
  • The brain is a biological organ. Sex is a biological factor. But it is not the sole factor; it intersects with so many variables.”
  • Letting go of age-old certainties is frightening, concedes Rippon, who is both optimistic about the future, and fearful for it.
  • On the plus side, our plastic brains are good learners. All we need to do is change the life lessons.
  • One major breakthrough in recent years has been the realisation that, even in adulthood, our brains are continually being changed, not just by the education we receive, but also by the jobs we do, the hobbies we have, the sports we play.
  • Once we acknowledge that our brains are plastic and mouldable, then the power of gender stereotypes becomes evident.
  • Beliefs about sex differences (even if ill-founded) inform stereotypes, which commonly provide just two labels – girl or boy, female or male – which, in turn, historically carry with them huge amounts of “contents assured” information and save us having to judge each individual on their own merits
  • With input from exciting breakthroughs in neuroscience, the neat, binary distinctiveness of these labels is being challenged – we are coming to realise that nature is inextricably entangled with nurture.
  • The 21st century is not just challenging the old answers – it is challenging the question itself.
manhefnawi

Are Smart People More Likely to Believe Stereotypes? | Mental Floss - 0 views

mentalfloss.com/...ore-likely-believe-stereotypes

Pattern Recognition Intelligence

shared by manhefnawi on 12 Jun 18 - No Cached
  • There are many different kinds of intelligence, each reliant on its own set of skills and abilities. One such ability is pattern recognition, without which we’d have trouble recognizing faces, learning languages, or reading other people’s emotions. Because it’s so central to our cognitive and social functioning, pattern recognition is sometimes used by researchers as a shorthand for overall intelligence.
  • Finding that higher pattern detection ability puts people at greater risk to detect and apply stereotypes, but also to reverse them, implicates this ability as a cognitive mechanism underlying stereotyping,” co-author Jonathan Freeman said in the statement.
sissij

Woman Drivers: Worse Than Men? Yes... and No | Reader's Digest - 0 views

www.rd.com/...-men-better-drivers-than-women

research knowledge language bias

shared by sissij on 10 Nov 16 - No Cached
  • In studies, men as a whole display less cautious behavior than women, such as driving at higher speeds and closer to other cars, not wearing seat belts, and driving while intoxicated more often.
  • However, this slight edge in ability doesn’t translate into better driving records.
  • According to one study, men are more than three times as likely to be ticketed for “aggressive driving” than women, and more than 25 percent as likely to be at fault in an accident.
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  • Similarly, the stereotype that women are weaker drivers may negatively affect their performance behind the wheel.
  • sissij on 10 Nov 16
     
    I found it very interesting that although there is a stereotype that women drive poorly, men actually cause more accidents in researches. I very agree with the author because he make the term "better" clear in the passage, which most other claims mentioned vaguely. In his writing, "better" has two meanings: how safe one drives and how well one drives. I think looking at the problem through the two very different meaning of "better" can lead to very different conclusions. I think that's why different article held opposite views on this issue. They don't speak in the same language; they are speaking of different "better"s. --Sissi (11/10/2016)
carolinewren

US bringing up the middle on gender-science stereotyping - 0 views

phys.org/...nder-science-stereotyping.html

science stereoypes

shared by carolinewren on 03 Jun 15 - No Cached
  • Gender stereotyping in which men are more strongly associated with science than women has been found in some unlikely countries, with the Netherlands leading the list and the United States in the middle at 38th, according to research that surveyed more than 350,000 people in 66 countries through a website called Project Implicit.
  • asked those surveyed how much they associated science with men or women and how quickly they associated words like "math" or "physics" with words like "woman" or "man." But they were not asked whether men or women were more competent at science.
  • "Educators should present examples beyond Marie Curie to help shape students' beliefs about who pursues science," said Linn. "Students reconsider who pursues science when they can compare examples of female scientists and reflect on their beliefs."
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  • only 26.6 percent of U.S. scientists are women, the 10th worst showing below No. 1 Japan with 12 percent women scientists.
  • Latvia, at No. 58, had the highest proportion, with 51.8 percent women scientists.
  • But change is on the way
  • Iran had the best showing in this category, at No. 60, with women representing 67.3 percent of college science majors.
Javier E

Why Disruptors Are Always White Guys -- NYMag - 0 views

nymag.com/...ors-are-always-white-guys.html

bias management sexism racism privilege

shared by Javier E on 11 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • There are three pernicious and interrelated phenomena at work here. First, founders are disproportionately white dudes. Second, white dudes are disproportionately encouraged to become founders. Third, white dudes are disproportionately recognized as founders.
  • Ultimately, this phenomenon can lead to the erasure of women and minorities in leadership roles from the picture
  • The research is broad and deep on the “glass walls” that keep women from becoming entrepreneurs, or the profound discrimination that many people of color face when starting their own businesses. Investors like a pitch coming from a man better than coming from a woman — even when the pitch is the same. Minority-owned firms get rejected for loans at twice the rate of white-owned firms, and often pay higher interest rates when they get them, too. 
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  • There’s a single discriminatory phenomenon underpinning all three of these issues, sometimes called “think manager, think male.”
  • . “Probably the single most important hurdle for women in management in all industrialized countries is the persistent stereotype that associates management with being male,” one study reads
  • Other studies find distinctly similar stereotypes related to people of color and leadership.
  • In today’s media economy, we’re facing the “think entrepreneur, think white dude” problem.
  • it need not be so. As a very preliminary step, if publications insisted on putting women and minorities on their stupid, arbitrary lists, it would elevate those entrepreneurs and founders. It might help break down the deep stereotypes that help to discourage women and minorities from becoming entrepreneurs in the first place.
Javier E

Opinion | How Genetics Is Changing Our Understanding of 'Race' - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...genetics-race.html

genetics race science research human origins

shared by Javier E on 25 Mar 18 - No Cached
  • In 1942, the anthropologist Ashley Montagu published “Man’s Most Dangerous Myth: The Fallacy of Race,” an influential book that argued that race is a social concept with no genetic basis.
  • eginning in 1972, genetic findings began to be incorporated into this argument. That year, the geneticist Richard Lewontin published an important study of variation in protein types in blood. He grouped the human populations he analyzed into seven “races” — West Eurasians, Africans, East Asians, South Asians, Native Americans, Oceanians and Australians — and found that around 85 percent of variation in the protein types could be accounted for by variation within populations and “races,” and only 15 percent by variation across them. To the extent that there was variation among humans, he concluded, most of it was because of “differences between individuals.”
  • In this way, a consensus was established that among human populations there are no differences large enough to support the concept of “biological race.” Instead, it was argued, race is a “social construct,” a way of categorizing people that changes over time and across countries.
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  • t is true that race is a social construct. It is also true, as Dr. Lewontin wrote, that human populations “are remarkably similar to each other” from a genetic point of view.
  • this consensus has morphed, seemingly without questioning, into an orthodoxy. The orthodoxy maintains that the average genetic differences among people grouped according to today’s racial terms are so trivial when it comes to any meaningful biological traits that those differences can be ignored.
  • With the help of these tools, we are learning that while race may be a social construct, differences in genetic ancestry that happen to correlate to many of today’s racial constructs are real.
  • I have deep sympathy for the concern that genetic discoveries could be misused to justify racism. But as a geneticist I also know that it is simply no longer possible to ignore average genetic differences among “races.”
  • Groundbreaking advances in DNA sequencing technology have been made over the last two decades
  • Care.
  • The orthodoxy goes further, holding that we should be anxious about any research into genetic differences among populations
  • You will sometimes hear that any biological differences among populations are likely to be small, because humans have diverged too recently from common ancestors for substantial differences to have arisen under the pressure of natural selection. This is not true. The ancestors of East Asians, Europeans, West Africans and Australians were, until recently, almost completely isolated from one another for 40,000 years or longer, which is more than sufficient time for the forces of evolution to work
  • I am worried that well-meaning people who deny the possibility of substantial biological differences among human populations are digging themselves into an indefensible position, one that will not survive the onslaught of science.
  • I am also worried that whatever discoveries are made — and we truly have no idea yet what they will be — will be cited as “scientific proof” that racist prejudices and agendas have been correct all along, and that those well-meaning people will not understand the science well enough to push back against these claims.
  • This is why it is important, even urgent, that we develop a candid and scientifically up-to-date way of discussing any such difference
  • While most people will agree that finding a genetic explanation for an elevated rate of disease is important, they often draw the line there. Finding genetic influences on a propensity for disease is one thing, they argue, but looking for such influences on behavior and cognition is another
  • Is performance on an intelligence test or the number of years of school a person attends shaped by the way a person is brought up? Of course. But does it measure something having to do with some aspect of behavior or cognition? Almost certainly.
  • Recent genetic studies have demonstrated differences across populations not just in the genetic determinants of simple traits such as skin color, but also in more complex traits like bodily dimensions and susceptibility to diseases.
  • in Iceland, there has been measurable genetic selection against the genetic variations that predict more years of education in that population just within the last century.
  • consider what kinds of voices are filling the void that our silence is creating
  • Nicholas Wade, a longtime science journalist for The New York Times, rightly notes in his 2014 book, “A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History,” that modern research is challenging our thinking about the nature of human population differences. But he goes on to make the unfounded and irresponsible claim that this research is suggesting that genetic factors explain traditional stereotypes.
  • 139 geneticists (including myself) pointed out in a letter to The New York Times about Mr. Wade’s book, there is no genetic evidence to back up any of the racist stereotypes he promotes.
  • Another high-profile example is James Watson, the scientist who in 1953 co-discovered the structure of DNA, and who was forced to retire as head of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories in 2007 after he stated in an interview — without any scientific evidence — that research has suggested that genetic factors contribute to lower intelligence in Africans than in Europeans.
  • What makes Dr. Watson’s and Mr. Wade’s statements so insidious is that they start with the accurate observation that many academics are implausibly denying the possibility of average genetic differences among human populations, and then end with a claim — backed by no evidence — that they know what those differences are and that they correspond to racist stereotypes
  • They use the reluctance of the academic community to openly discuss these fraught issues to provide rhetorical cover for hateful ideas and old racist canards.
  • This is why knowledgeable scientists must speak out. If we abstain from laying out a rational framework for discussing differences among populations, we risk losing the trust of the public and we actively contribute to the distrust of expertise that is now so prevalent.
  • If scientists can be confident of anything, it is that whatever we currently believe about the genetic nature of differences among populations is most likely wrong.
  • For example, my laboratory discovered in 2016, based on our sequencing of ancient human genomes, that “whites” are not derived from a population that existed from time immemorial, as some people believe. Instead, “whites” represent a mixture of four ancient populations that lived 10,000 years ago and were each as different from one another as Europeans and East Asians are today.
  • For me, a natural response to the challenge is to learn from the example of the biological differences that exist between males and females
  • The differences between the sexes are far more profound than those that exist among human populations, reflecting more than 100 million years of evolution and adaptation. Males and females differ by huge tracts of genetic material
  • How do we accommodate the biological differences between men and women? I think the answer is obvious: We should both recognize that genetic differences between males and females exist and we should accord each sex the same freedoms and opportunities regardless of those differences
  • fulfilling these aspirations in practice is a challenge. Yet conceptually it is straightforward.
  • Compared with the enormous differences that exist among individuals, differences among populations are on average many times smaller, so it should be only a modest challenge to accommodate a reality in which the average genetic contributions to human traits differ.
sissij

Do You Speak American . What Speech Do We Like Best? . Prejudice . Attitudes | PBS - 1 views

www.pbs.org/...attitudes

Language stereotypes

shared by sissij on 13 Oct 16 - No Cached
  • Linguists know that language variety does not correlate with intelligence or competence
  • A primary linguistic myth, one nearly universally attached to minorities, rural people and the less well educated, extends in the United States even to well-educated speakers of some regional varieties. That myth, of course, is that some varieties of a language are not as good as others.
  • Professional linguists are happy with the idea that some varieties of a language are more standard than others; that is a product of social facts.
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  • Southerners pretty clearly suffer from what linguists would call ‘linguistic insecurity’, but they manage to deflect the disdain of Northerners to adjacent areas rather than suffer the principal shame locally.
  • sissij on 13 Oct 16
     
    Dialects in different languages create a stereotype. This is because of people's tendency of finding patterns. These patterns are invented and don't reflects the reality. This is also caused by the separation between different social status. --Sissi (10/13/2016)
cvanderloo

US has a long history of violence against Asian women - 1 views

theconversation.com/nce-against-asian-women-157533

asian american racism stereotypes bias violence

shared by cvanderloo on 26 Mar 21 - No Cached
  • The shooter himself, Robert Long, has said he was motivated to act violently because of his self-proclaimed “sex addiction.” He allegedly told investigators that the businesses he attacked represented “a temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate.”
  • Rosalind Chou, a sociologist, describes how in 2000, a group of white men kidnapped five Japanese female exchange students in Spokane, Washington, to fulfill their sexual fantasies of Asian female bondage, a subgenre of pornography.
  • The official assumption was that, unless proven otherwise, Chinese women seeking to enter the United States lacked moral character and were prostitutes.
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  • Some soldiers married Asian women and brought them home as war brides, while others primarily viewed Asian women as sexual objects. Both approaches perpetuated stereotypes of Asian women as sexually submissive, either as ideal wives or sexually exotic prostitutes.
  • In online digital pornography, Asian women are disproportionately presented as victims of rape, compared to white women or women of other racial backgrounds.
  • Harmful stereotypes of Asian women in American popular culture date back to at least the 19th century. Back then, American missionaries and military personnel in Asia viewed the women they met there as exotic and submissive.
  • The most recent high-profile example of this dynamic is the 2015 rape of a woman by white Stanford student Brock Turner. Not until 2019 did the woman, Chanel Miller, reveal her name and identity as an Asian American woman.
  • In March 2020, Asian American and Pacific Islander community organizations joined with San Francisco State University’s Asian American Studies Program to document incidents of anti-Asian racism occurring across the country during the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • The group has found that Asian women report hate incidents 2.3 times as often as Asian men.
  • Asian women are not the only targets of racial and sexual violence. Any non-white woman has a greater risk of these perils than white women do.
sissij

Leave American Girls Alone - The New York Times - 1 views

www.nytimes.com/...eave-american-girls-alone.html

new york times social media bias

shared by sissij on 21 Feb 17 - No Cached
  • Though if you’re trying to gender neutralize, maybe don’t call your company American Girl.
  • To longtime fans, it feels more like girls are losing something that used to be theirs alone.
  • dolls that looked like girls.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Perhaps the most offensive thing about Logan (besides the fact that his fanfared debut implies these spunky, self-sufficient girls needed a boy in their lives) is that, like the other rootless dolls in American Girl’s bland “contemporary” lines, he is marketed as interesting not because of his historical connections, but because he is available for purchase.
  • Narrative issues aside, Tenney is the more dynamic plaything simply because she comes with more: more hair, more accessories, more hardships to overcome when boys like her friend Logan grow up to earn one dollar for every 80 cents she earns, and then try to take away her reproductive rights.
  • Of course, there’s nothing to stop girls from interpreting Logan as Tenney’s short-haired friend who joined her Riot Grrrl band to rock against the patriarchy.
  • If Logan were being advertised as the company’s first transgender doll, his story would fit right in line with American Girl’s origins, imploring kids to consider sophisticated issues at a second-grade reading level.
  • Disappointing, then, that he seems to be a glorified background player getting all the attention because he’s a man.
  • sissij on 21 Feb 17
     
    I think this article goes a little bit over to this gender issue. I think the author might be too sensitive about it. When I first heard about this news, I felt nothing wrong. I even think it might be a good thing to have a boy doll so that dolls are not dominated by girls. However, this viewpoint in this article is kind of different from mine. The author thinks by having boy dolls, the children are being taught the stereotyping of both gender and it has a bad influence especially on little girls and their interpretation of women rights in the future. Although this viewpoint is very interesting to acknowledge, I still think the author is getting overly sensitive and idealistic. The American Girl is essentially a company, not some social organization. It cares about what the general public likes, not much about whether the action is right is wrong. Everything has two sides. In this case, I think having a boy doll can be an innovative move of the company. --Sissi (2/20/2017)
sissij

How Intelligent Are Psychopaths? Study Examines the "Hannibal Lecter Myth" | Big Think - 0 views

bigthink.com/...ow-intelligent-are-psychopaths

psychopaths science brain science social media

shared by sissij on 09 Feb 17 - No Cached
  • We tend to think of psychopaths as dangerous, antisocial, lacking in key human emotions like empathy or remorse.
  • finding that whatever qualities they might have, high intelligence is not one of them. In fact, psychopaths were found to be less intelligent than average people.
  • referred by psychologists as the “Hannibal Lecter myth”. But that kind of Hollywoodized psychopath did not sit well with observed facts. 
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • The researchers found that psychopaths scored lower on intelligence tests. A surprising result, according to Boutwell. 
  • The researchers hope that their finding will contribute to our understanding psychopathy, currently an untreatable condition. 
  • Further research might also change how psychopaths are treated by the criminal justice system. 
  • sissij on 09 Feb 17
     
    We tends to give labels and stereotypes to a group of people, and the psychopaths is just another group of people that has been incorrectly depicted. The social media plays a big part in this case. The Hollywood creates psychopaths as highly intelligent evil genius to make the characters and storyline more interesting. However, it is far from the actual fact, but the viewers and the general public take this image as a reality. Since people tend to be lazy, they eager to receive information rather than find the information themselves. Due to the exposure effect, the image of psychopaths being evil but highly intelligent becomes the mainstream impression on psychopaths. Correcting the image of psychopaths in our head can help us better understand their behaviors without making unfair judgments. --Sissi (2/9/2017)
sissij

Why Westerners and Easterners Really Do Think Differently | Big Think - 0 views

bigthink.com/...has-a-great-deal-to-do-with-it

science research psychology

shared by sissij on 06 Feb 17 - No Cached
  • While the studies cover many different topics, the subject of an individualistic or holistic thinking style is noteworthy.
  • In one study, complex images were shown to test subjects from East Asia and North America. The scientists tracked the eye movements of the participants in order to gauge where their attention was focused. It was found that the Chinese participants spent more time looking at the background of the image, while the Americans tended to focus on the main object in the picture. Holistic and individualistic thinking manifested in one clear example.
  • Of course, these tendencies are generalizations.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • One is that the staple food of a region may have something to do with it. This is excellently seen in China, where the northern half of the country grows wheat and the southern half grows rice. Rice growing is a labour intensive activity, that requires the coordination of several neighboring farms to do properly. Wheat farming, on the other hand, takes much less work and does not require coordination of irrigation systems in order to work.
  • Even today, more than 100 years after the colonization effort, the effects of living in a society that was so recently a frontier show up in individual and holistic thinking tests. With residents of Hokkaido demonstrating tendencies towards individualism to a larger extent than the rest of the Japanese population.
  • sissij on 06 Feb 17
     
    I really like the author stating that "Of course, these tendencies are generalizations." This shows that this study is not to categorize people into east and west, two groups. But this tendency is worth-noticing. The trials presented in the article shows different possibilities of why there is a difference. I think this cultural difference is similar to why Australia has very distinctive animal compare to the other continents. Since in the ancient times, westerners and easterners are isolated to each other, they took different approaches to develop their civilization. However, I really like the author emphasizing that this difference is not a stereotyping, it is the result of population analysis and observations. --Sissi (2/6/2017)
sissij

The 'Goddess' Yi Wan Ka: Ivanka Trump Is a Hit in China - The New York Times - 1 views

www.nytimes.com/...ivanka-trump-china.html

new york times bias social media psychology

shared by sissij on 06 Apr 17 - No Cached
  • But in China, Ms. Trump is widely adored. Her lavish lifestyle and business acumen resonate with many young professionals who are hungry for fame and fortune in a society that often equates material wealth with success.
  • “She’s very independent,” said Wang Jiabao, 28, a reality television producer in Beijing. “She represents what we’re looking for — to marry into a decent family, to look good, and to also have your own career.”
  • Chinese companies have also tried to profit from Ms. Trump’s popularity, filing hundreds of trademark applications using her name — Yi Wan Ka in Chinese — on products and services such as shoes, spa treatments, plastic surgery and pottery.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • “Underneath her image are very traditional values,” said Dai Linjia, a communications consultant. “Her family is almost like a dynasty.”
  • Many younger Chinese will be watching this week’s meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi for signs of Ms. Trump.
  • sissij on 06 Apr 17
     
    I found it very interesting that Chinese people tends to have a really good impression on Ivanka Trump. For many people, Ivanka even becomes the reason why they like Mr. Trump. I think the popularity of Ivanka is sort of related to the culture and value of Chinese people. Chinese are well known for that they value their children's education a lot. And Ivanka's story appeals to them as a successful model of raising a child. It reminds me of what we learned in TOK. People are eccentric. They like to take in what appeals to them what they are familiar with.Ivanka becomes a successful stereotype. --Sissi 4/6/2017)
Ellie Anderson

The bright side of sadness - 1 views

www.sciencenews.org/...bright-side-sadness

science research psychology

shared by Ellie Anderson on 24 Oct 13 - No Cached
  • Thomas Jefferson defended the right to pursue happiness in the Declaration of Independence.
  • “Bad moods are seen in our happiness-focused culture as representing a problem, but we need to be aware that temporary, mild negative feelings have important benefits,”
  • One investigation found that people in sad moods have an advantage remembering the details of unusual incidents that they have witnessed. And a little gloominess could help job applicants; lousy moods cut down on the tendency to stereotype others, thus boosting the accuracy of first impressions.
  • ...18 more annotations...
  • Growing evidence suggests that gloomy moods improve key types of thinking and behavior, Forgas asserts in a new review paper aptly titled “Don’t worry, be sad!” For good evolutionary reasons, positive and negative moods subtly recruit thinking styles suited to either benign or troubling situations,
  • Many emotion theorists now agree that negative moods direct attention to tasks at hand and promote analytical thinking, whereas positive moods broaden attention and prompt original thinking. Researchers in a field dubbed “positive psychology” have put a lot of recent focus on exploring how happiness profits mind and body.
  • Whether good or bad, moods are relatively low-intensity, background feelings that can last for anywhere from a few minutes to the whole day. A person may feel somewhat good or bad, happy or sad, without knowing why or even being aware of such moods.
  • On “good” days, he reasoned, everything just felt right without any past triumphs coming to mind. On “bad” days, life felt lousy in the moment, without any tragic memories returning for an encore.
  • Individuals aren’t slaves to their moods, Schwarz cautions. A sad person can think outside the box if necessary, say, to solve problems at work. And a happy person can accurately fill out tax forms or complete other detail-heavy tasks.
  • Moods provide surprisingly keen insights into one’s environment, the team concluded.
  • By embracing their moods, superior forecasters gained unconscious access to a vast amount of learned information that informed their predictions, Pham speculated.
  • Alternatively, good moods trigger a loose mode of thought conducive to creativity and seeing the big picture. Happiness signals that a situation is safe, or at least not immediately threatening,
  • Sad moods also improve eyewitness memory, apparently by lowering the tendency to incorporate false and misleading details into accounts of what was observed. In a 2005 study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, college students witnessed a staged altercation between a lecturer and a woman who angrily interrupted the talk.
  • Sad moods can also make first impressions of others more reliable,
  • Sad folks took longer to read and rate the essays than happy and neutral participants did. That’s probably because feeling sad fostered a more careful appraisal of essays and photos, Forgas suggests. As a result, he proposes, sad volunteers largely rejected the stereotype of philosophers as tweedy, professorial men, helping to minimize the halo effect.
  • In these experiments, moods were induced either by having participants watch happy or sad film clips or by falsely telling volunteers that they had scored extremely well or poorly on a test of spatial abilities.
  • In both conditions, raters determined that sad volunteers communicated more information relevant to the movie scenes and less unrelated information than the other two groups did, especially the happy folks. Those in a sad mood were especially good at keeping accounts brief, clear and to the point.
  • Moods were induced after participants watched movie clips but before they described the scenes, ensuring that the clips didn’t sway their manipulated moods.
  • Sad feelings may influence communication differently in situations where conversation
  • But moods may not engage specific mental strategies as proposed
  • If these findings hold up, happy and sad moods simply signal whether or not to change one’s current thinking style, Huntsinger says, rather than indicating whether to adopt an analytical or playful thinking style. Researchers have yet to test which of these two possibilities best explains mood-related behaviors.
  • much remains unknown about precisely how moods influence thought
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