What Sex is Your Brain?

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Yeah, I hate deal-in-a-vacuum questions like that. It reminds me of the one where they give you the chance to risk, say, $5,000 on a coin-toss, and if you win you get $12,000. Sure the reward outweighs the risk, but maybe someone just can't afford to risk losing $5,000. Course, if I could do it ten times I'd take the bet in a second. (xpost)

― Not For Use as Infant Nog (A-Ron Hubbard), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 17:06 (seventeen years ago) link

Who the fuck is telling little girls this?

Well, the BBC's "What sex is your brain" quiz, for one.

― Handgun O. Mendocino (pullapartgirl), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 17:10 (seventeen years ago) link

Ended up a little more male than female. Not too much, though -- just enough. Longer ring fingers (just barely), decent spatial mapping, preference for female faces apparently counterbalanced by a surprisingly strong ability to read eyes. Okay.

― adam beales (pye poudre), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 17:10 (seventeen years ago) link

xpost - But you said yourself, "I don't know why but I do find way more guys are into the politics than girls." So that means either brain chemistry or societal conditioning, and unless you buy the brain chemistry argument, which is akin to saying that women are biologically unable to participate effectively in politics, that means somebody or something has to be sending a message to women that politics is not for them.

― Handgun O. Mendocino (pullapartgirl), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 17:12 (seventeen years ago) link

Here's where I stand on things like male/female differences:
Men and women, on average, have different aptitudes and weaknesses as well ans certain personality traits that are applicable to that gender.(proofread my grammar, please. I no think god when no smoke)
However, these are merely averages and aptitudes.

Thus, these tests are worth two 3" hills of fuckbeans.

― Geza T iz tha Rainy G. Toronado (The GZeus), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 17:19 (seventeen years ago) link

i got a very-slightly-more-female score (then mistakenly closed the tab, so I've forgotten what it was), but it seemed to be solely because I could think of lots of words, since I got 'male' scores on pretty much all else, incl the testosterone-addled ring finger. Though apparently I have right-brain dominance, whoop-de-doo.

The results page was wierd, it made these generalisations about 'the male brain' and 'the female brain' but the difference between male and female average scores that it gave was miniscule - on the judging-emotions-by-eyes thing, the average score for men and women was the same, so why would you believe that women were 'generally' better at it than men?

― cis boom bah (cis), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 17:35 (seventeen years ago) link

I scored 25 female. And I got 11 out of 12 in the 3d objects thing. Also, the average for one of the tests was the same for both male and female, but in the end blurb they still stated that scoring one way or the other was more feminine. Huh?

― emil.y (emil.y), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 17:47 (seventeen years ago) link

Oh, xpost with cis. Yes, what the hell was that about?

― emil.y (emil.y), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 17:48 (seventeen years ago) link

SEX BRAIN QUIZ

1. YOU HAVE A PENIS

a. yes
b. no

2. YOU HAVE A VAGINA

a. no
b. yes

MORE FEMALE BRAINS RESPOND TO BOTH QUESTIONS WITH b. MALE BRAINS GENERALLY RESPOND TO BOTH QUESTIONS WITH a.

― TOMB07 (trm), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 17:50 (seventeen years ago) link

My metric/inch ruler is hanging from a nail, a SPECIAL NAIL JUST FOR MY RULER. But I could only click on one object in the "what object has been moved" thing. When you have a bad brain you need a special nail for everything!

― Beth Parker (Beth Parker), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 17:57 (seventeen years ago) link

haha I think I didn't even try to remember where objects were to begin with

― step hen faps (Curt1s Stephens), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 18:24 (seventeen years ago) link

25 on the male side.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 18:33 (seventeen years ago) link

Eyes

This task tested your ability to judge people's emotions.
Your score: 7 out of 10
Average score
for men: 6.6 out of 10
Average score for
women: 6.6 out of 10

What does your result suggest?
If you scored
0 - 3: Do you think you're good at judging how another person is
feeling? Your score suggests this doesn't come to you quite so
naturally.
If you scored 4 - 6: Your result suggests you have a balanced
female-male brain and find it neither easy nor difficult to judge
people's emotions.
If you scored 7 - 10: Your result suggests you are a good
empathiser, sensitive to other people's emotions. Women generally
fall into this category.
Professor Baron-Cohen at the University of Cambridge says that
people usually perform better than they expect to on this test.

Men often think a person's eyes are sending signals of desire
when that's not the case at all.

New character?

― Michael White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 18:37 (seventeen years ago) link

Simon Baron-Cohen: Sasha's uncle, as well as being ruling monarch of "women be shopping" pop-science.

― cis boom bah (cis), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 18:46 (seventeen years ago) link

which is akin to saying that women are biologically unable to participate effectively in politics

I don't think that's what it would imply at all. More like less interested than less capable would be my take on it.
Not that I think that's necessarily the case anyhow.

xpost

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 18:48 (seventeen years ago) link

do britishers ever, y'know, do real science? Cuz judging from the majority of bbc/Guardian links posted here they spend most of their time conducting studies/polls about coffee-table subjects ("Study reveals men are grumpier!" etc)

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 18:48 (seventeen years ago) link

"Science reveals men, women different!"

― Shakey Mo Collier (Shakey Mo Collier), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 18:49 (seventeen years ago) link

The eyes just looked like stock from a $5 photo CD - who decided which emotion they were feeling?

― milo (milo), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 18:53 (seventeen years ago) link

xpost to self: ah, no, I was wrong - second cousin.

about the politics thing, I think it's more based in a belief that women tend not to be able to conceptualise large, complex systems, like the inside of a car engine or the political system, while being very good at sensing out more fluctuating and vague systems such a people's networks of shifting friendships; not quite to say 'ah the ladies, their little fluffy brains will be overtaxed by difficult topics like the government of human society'.

britishes love the pseudoscience, it's true! at least we have ben goldacre to tell us off for it.

― cis boom bah (cis), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 18:54 (seventeen years ago) link

who decided which emotion they were feeling?

And why was there no "fuck me" option for that one chick?

― look at them eating. i bet it tastes real good. (kenan), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 19:15 (seventeen years ago) link

Big zero for me. And what does it mean if you score well above average for EITHER sex? That you're not an idiot, considering what national test averages tend to be?

― Laurel (Laurel), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 19:20 (seventeen years ago) link

What's annoying is that, taken individually, my scores on mechanical/spatial tests are VERY masculine, and my scores on emotive/empathetic tests were VERY feminine, so that "0" really ought to have been two opposite extreme ones. In conclusion, this test is dumb!

― Laurel (Laurel), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 19:22 (seventeen years ago) link

That's a very male reaction!

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 19:27 (seventeen years ago) link

Laurel's on to something there. I came out as gender neutral but my scores were 'masculine' for the 'masculine' questions and 'feminine' for the 'feminine' ones.

― Michael White (Miguelito), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 19:27 (seventeen years ago) link

And why was there no "fuck me" option for that one chick?

-- look at them eating. i bet it tastes real good. (fluxion2...), January 2nd, 2007.

Or like, all of them???

― Not For Use as Infant Nog (A-Ron Hubbard), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:03 (seventeen years ago) link

My results told me to give up and become a host on SQUARE ONE: THE NEW MILLENIUM SERIES.

― Abbott (Abbott), Tuesday, 2 January 2007 22:49 (seventeen years ago) link

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