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I read the paper and the point it is trying to make is a little different. Yes, you are right about the biases in self reports, but this bias is part of many studies in psychology. The main point of the article is statistical. The common idea (publicized by Hyde) is that you should measure average when assessing personality traits. If you do so, you find relatively little differences between men and women. On the other hand, the authors offer a more accurate way to measure the difference by aggregating the differenecs. I recommend reading this summary of the study: http://blogs.plos.org/everyone/2012/01/04/multivariate-versus-univariate...

In addition, the notion that there are innate difference between men and women does not come from self report questionnaires. There are differences in the brain, there are differences in hormones, many of them start in the womb, there is evidence showing how women's preference change through their menstrual cycle and so on. While there is no doubt that many of the differences are due to socialization, many others are not, as evident by cross cultural study with very different social structures and forces.

Hi Gil,

First of all, thank you for commenting on the piece. I read the paper as well, and you're definitely right that the new point made there is one concerning statistical analysis. Our problem was by and large with the coverage of the study (presumably, most of the people who saw the news didn't read the underlying research), which reduced the issue to one of gender difference and interpreted the study's results to imply that the massive gender differences reported are inherent. And the researchers aren't exactly helping things – see the "different species" comment by Paul Irwing, or this article, in which Irwing uses the study's results to justify the gender gap in STEM fields. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8992639/Men-and-women-ha.... I actually agree that men and women display different personality traits on average; I just disagree with the conclusions being drawn.

As to the brain and hormonal differences, that's a separate discussion. There are certainly some differences between male and female brains and bodies, but there's some controversy about how large an effect they have on personality. Cordelia Fine's Delusions of Gender, mentioned in the article, has a good discussion of much of the existing research.

Once again, thanks for the reply!

Rachel

Is that journalist and others distort the what the article actually says so I wouldn't rely on them. It's not the authors fault that other people are taking liberties in interpreting the results. This is why I prefer to focus on the actual article. Also, PLoS one has a page where other researchers can comment on the article and the authors response. It's really interesting to read: http://www.plosone.org/article/comments/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.p...

Two words: David Reimer.

So, you are not a scientist by any means... yet you feel qualified to dismiss a scientific study in an area of biology that most biologists don't have the background to critique, because you took biology in the ninth grade?

Please let me review your next submission to a legal journal, because, you know, I've seen a few episodes of Law and Order.

Toy stores and television "cause" gender differences? How about in the Kalahari, where the !Kung San have never played with a "toy" nor watched television? Do their male and female babies kick the same in utero or is their prenatal activity also driven by sex specific hormones?

Maybe you'd like to comment on our closest genetic relatives? Do the great apes show the same sex differences as humans because they were given dolls or trucks for Apemass?

Oh, and what you know, or don't know, about the brain would be funny if it wasn't so embarrassingly uninformed. I thought, for a second, I might list a few dozen recent peer reviewed articles on the subject, but then I realized that someone with your misplaced confidence in an area you know nothing about would have read those articles if your confidence wasn't so misplaced. So, that list would be a colossal waste of time; for me writing it and for you not reading it.

One serious question if you aren't too embarrassed to respond; do you use wikipedia as a source for manuscripts submitted to legal journals? When I see that in undergraduate research papers (even though I explicitly warn against it) I, along with all of my colleagues, immediately return the draft for a rewrite. Its kind of embarrassing.

"Gender differences aren't born - they're made."

Spoken like a true behaviorist. Yes Joan, J. B. Watson of the "Give me a dozen healthy infants... and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of..." fame, or infamy, made this claim over 80 years ago, and we're still laughing about it... you know, except when it leads to suicide, as in the David Reimer case. Did you read about the John Money "experiment" in your freshman bio class? Maybe you should before you go shooting your mouth off about something you obviously know nothing about.

Are you fellows saying that this is just the way you're wired? Not sure that's a plus.

I have one word for you: anisogamy.

And, then, two more terms that are a consequence of anisogamy: reproductive rate, and assurance of genetic parentage.

These are the stuff from which sex differences are made.

Most men like women who are feminie and the study shows women are more sensitive and warm, are men (in general) attracted to dominate women?- clearly not

If you are a women be sure to act feminine (even if it’s not your style) unless you like being single.

Most women like a man who is masculine and as the study shows again men are more emotionally stable and dominate, are women attracted to shy unstable men?- hell no

If you are a man be sure to act masculine (even if you don’t feel masculine) unless you like being single.

The questions people want answers for -what are the root causes, how great is the influence of culture, how much of it is innate?
Researchers always seem to be pointing to cultural explanations or innate differences in brain structure, but let’s not forget the BODY- men are taller and stronger than women that alone changes everything (embodied cognition anyone?).

If men and women were identical in physicality (while remaining hormonally male and female) I would wager that the gender differences would be much less pronounced culturally and people want to act in line with their culture… unless they like being single!

I won't get into the more 'active' discussion of innate differences, but as a writer/journalist married to a researcher/scientist I am often taken by surprise at how 'results' are sensationalized in the media. The other recent media maelstrom over the finding 'that women who want it all are less happy' for instance was by a grad student and hadn't been peer reviewed yet. I was happy for the young woman who hit a complete pay-day...I think all of the national news programs covered this study in addition to hundreds of print outlets...and all based on something that I think was still in poster form! You kind of have to analyze what the media chooses to cover and how in addition to the actual findings. I've seen few if any studies that uncovered some huge previously untouched finding. They're usually very incremental...but that makes for less exciting writing of course!