Comments on: Questions Best Left Unanswered

By: Glen

Glen — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 03:18:02 +0000

I largely agree, but I think there may be some usefulness in these studies for countering people who consider any inequality of representation ipso facto evidence of racism or sexism. See, for instance, the kind of people who helped oust Larry Summers from the Harvard presidency. Their implicit and sometimes explicit assumption was that, absent sexism, there could not be persistent differences between men and women in choice of professions or performance within professions.

By: J

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 02:38:37 +0000

Exposure to Scientific Theories Affects Women’s Math Performance is a recent paper along these lines.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/314/5798/435

By: bza

bza — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 22:40:39 +0000

The phenomenon you're talking about is called stereotype threat.