Archive for Science
Updates on Gender, Science and Discrimination
First, there is an interesting post on the Feminist Philosophers’ blog that summarizes a NY Times article on gender discrimination at universities, clearly supporting Spelke’s side by documenting differential treatment of applicants depending on gender. Although Pinker might be correct that there are innate differences, that does not excuse discrimination, though they might provide convenient self-justifications. If anything, the social forces are exaggerating these innate differences rather than compensating for them.
And then, articles here and here summarize a recent study using data collected by PISA, which
suggests that, when it comes to math, we can forget biology, as social equality seems to play a dominant role in test scores.(source)
The overall result showed the usual pattern: Boys did better than girls in math and girls did better than boys in reading. But there was a catch: that result differed by country making the authors curious if there might be a relationship between the score differential and the status of women. They created a gender equality score and found that countries with very high gender equality do indeed have a much smaller math performance difference. Whereas countries with lower gender equality showed a much larger difference in math performance.
The correlations between gender equality and math scores held up under a statistical test designed to catch spurious associations. The authors even checked out the possibility of genetic effects not linked to the Y chromosome by examining whether genetic similarity between various European populations could account for these differences, but they found that it could not.(source)
One of Pinker’s central arguments was that the gender gap was primarily prevalent in the extremes of the distribution. So, it is particularly interesting what this study found there:
The researchers also studied the percentage of students of each sex among the top scorers on the test. In the gender-equal countries, girls made up half or more of those who scored in the top one percent.(source)
The results support Spelke’s argument, although it is interesting to note that Pinker never said that all of the gender gap can be explained by biology. His claim was that “the contribution of biology is greater than zero.” However, it seemed that he was using that to argue away the societal influences. We clearly cannot do that. This latest study shows the influence of gender inequality on girl’s math performance. It does not say that there are no innate differences. It simply highlights that the social forces Spelke pointed to have a dramatic effect. This study might also be the first step to the experiment Spelke suggested at the end of her talk: Remove the gender discrimination and biased treatment and then see what happens to the percentage of women in mathematics and science.
Is Marriage Natural?
Of course, this is avoiding the real question: Is coupling natural? Continue reading this post » » »
Evidence for the Adaptive Unconscious
In one experiment with a small sample, researchers at the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience found
signals [of brain behavior leading up to the moment of conscious decision] that let them know when the students had decided to move 10 seconds or so before the students knew it themselves. About 70% of the time, the researchers could also predict which button the students would push.
Other researchers have shown similar predictive power from observing brain activity right before experiment participants verbalized their decision. They also found that different brain regions are involved during the preparation and the execution of a task. Already in the early 1980s, research was published that indicated that brain activity clearly preceded a conscious activity suggestion that an unconscious decision had been made before it became conscious.
Robert Lee Hotz, the WSJ science journalist, summarizes the implications of this research:
Such experiments suggest that our best reasons for some choices we make are understood only by our cells. The findings lend credence to researchers who argue that many important decisions may be best made by going with our gut — not by thinking about them too much.
Wilson, for example, talks about letting the adaptive unconscious make decisions for us (p. 172):
The point is that we should not analyze the information in an overly deliberate, conscious manner, constantly making explicit lists of pluses and minuses. We should let our adaptive unconscious do the job of forming reliable feelings and then trust those feelings, even if we cannot explain them entirely.
Interestingly, the neuroscientists maintain that this does not preclude free will. Somehow because we’re studying how we think gives us free will. Hotz puts it this way:
All this work to deconstruct the mental machinery of choice may be the best evidence of conscious free will. By measuring the brain’s physical processes, the mind seeks to know itself through its reflection in the mirror of science.
“We are trying to understand who we are,” said Antonio Damasio, director of the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California, “by studying the organ that allows you to understand who you are.”
Daniel Dennett would agree with this assessment:
People have this strange antipathy for evolution and for materialism. They think that if evolution is true, then they’re just animals or automatons — that they won’t have freedom and they won’t have responsibility, and life will have no meaning. [...] On the contrary, it’s only when you understand life from an evolutionary point of view that you understand what our freedom really is. You realize that it’s real. It’s different and better than the freedom of other animals, but it’s evolved. It’s not supernatural.
The role of the adaptive unconscious is to help us make decisions, to sort through the millions of pieces of information we are absorbing constantly. Then we can use our freedom to make better decisions: We can consciously intervene in the unconscious decision process, though sometimes that leads to ineffective decisions, or we can decide to learn to utilize the process better in a manner similar to what Wilson suggested. Either way, we’re free to decide.
(Hat tip to Butterflies and Wheels for the link to the WSJ article).



