Gender

"That is what boys do Angie. They peep." ------Line from the George Lopez Show This line struck me while I was watching this show the other night. Sure, the young boy in this episode was peeping through a hole in the wall to try and see his sister's friend undressing. But, to George, it was met with a stamp of approval. (perhaps, also, even a welcome verification of his son's heterosexuality?) I recall a time when I was 12 and at a male friend's house. My friend's father asked if he had "made

President Obama was never friends with his father.  Last week at the White House, he addressed the importance of fathers in children's lives and described his own mixed relationship with his dad, also recounted in his autobiography.

Rhodes scholar finalist, graduate from Stanford University with honors, Harvard Law School student, news anchor, author of 4 books, Executive Director of foundation for veterans . . . this list of accomplishments brings a certain image to mind, and that image is not a 20-something year old woman wearing a tiara and walking down a pageant runway with a bouquet of roses. Read More

"All you need is love...love is all you need." The Beatles sang this interminably. "What the world needs now, is love, sweet love," sang Burt Bacharach in close harmony. "Love makes the world go round" is proverbial. Read More

...and one who isn't a princess, please. NPR.org blogger Linda Holmes identifies a notable omission from Pixar's cinematic corpus: a lack of a single leading female character. Read More

It has long been known that the mating motive can be a remarkably potent creative force. Indeed, many wildly creative individuals report being inspired by a Muse. But what about the rest of us? Does the average person spontaneously increase his or her creative display once the mating motive is active? And if the mating motive can increase creativity, how is this reconciled with research showing that the mating motive can impair cognitive functioning (see Interacting with women makes men stupid)? Finally, why are female Muses so predominant? Where are all the male Muses? I'm out of breath asking so many questions. Please read on already. Read More

In terms of their general disposition, men and women are equally envious. On the other hand, when asked about things that make them envious of same-sex rivals, they display dissimilar triggers of envy (e.g., the beauty, intelligence, and social status of same-sex rivals). Such is the explanatory power of evolutionary theory, as it can help us predict the areas in which men and women are similar, and those wherein we should expect clear sex differences. Vive nos différences! Read More

 These three words seem to have raised much controversy when paired with “as compared to a wise white male.” Read More

As an academic whose research focuses on 1) the effects of diversity on group decision-making and 2) psychological perspectives on the American legal system, there's a lot about the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court that piques my interest. Somewhat predictably, media coverage and political reaction to her selection has focused on issues of gender and race, bringing to the forefront of public discourse the intersection of contemporary debates surrounding diversity, judicial "activism," and personal identity... Read More