I highly recommend this to everyone human! Despite not majoring (or even minoring) in any social sciences, I do have a considerable background in the subject, but there was still a lot of fascinating, new information in here for me. I liked the section on gender differences as well as developmental psychology, no surprise there. Here's a few of my favorites:
- A test was given to people. If they were told it had to do with language and emotional reasoning, the women did better. If they were told it had to do with calculations and spatial reasoning, the men did better. The catch? It was the SAME TEST! That's how much sex based cognitive biases plays with our heads!
- "Within the United States, liberals tend to prioritize preventing harm and ensuring fairness. This emphasis tent to explain why liberals tend to vote for measures that gibe everyone a helping hand and try to equalize differences between the haves and have nots, welfare, healthcare, affirmative action and so on. Conservatives might tend to prioritize loyalty and personal purity. This explains their support for institutions and traditions and order. Liberals and conservatives may also differ over which positions of authority are most deserving of respect, scientists vs military leaders."
- "We now understand that these gender differences in achievement motivations are largely, or perhaps even entirely, a result of social learning. Men and boys are often praised for their high achievements where as women and girls learn there can be negative consequences, even a social backlash, for seeming too smart or too focused on career advancement, especially if they violate stereotyped expectations about how women are supposed to behave, as friendly, nice, warm, nurturing. Moreover, stereotyped perceptions of likeability and competence for men often go hand-in-hand. For women, perceptions of likability and competence can be inversely related."
