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Are Men More Rational than Women?

Jabberwocky

Jabberwocky

Frumious Bandersnatch
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Are Men more rational than Women? Do men think differently than women? Are women more 'affect-driven' in cognition and men more cold/calculatingly rational? Are there statistical regularities to support these kinds of statements?

I'm not overly concerned about any psychological and neurobiological studies (at this point in the thread)...I'm more concerned about your opinion.

Are women more 'affect-driven' in cognition and men more cold/calculatingly rational?

What do you think?

Ought this question even be asked? (ie is there some moral danger in asking these types of questions?)
 
I know that in the branch of philosophy in which I am involved, most philosophers whether they are male or female are attracted to a particular 'rationally consistent' (whatever that means. good point Pander Bear) ethical theory e.g. deontology, consequetialism... whatever. however, the vast majority of philosophers who support an ethics of caring (the idea that the right action is determined by our network of relationships and contextual details in combination with both consequentialist and deontological factors) are female. this idea cannot be rationally defended in the conventional sense of rational (if that even exists).

One couldn't really make any sweeping generalizations from this, but it's interesting to note. as pander bear said though, rational is really one of those slippery words
 
Edited: Comments like that really aren't welcome here in SO. Thanks. ~spork
 
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I feel that I, as a woman, am prone to being more emotional than rational 75% of the time. It's really a case by case situation. There's a lot of men I know that are 100% emotional and impulsive.
 
Here's my take on it:

I think men are more likely to favour logic over emotion if a situation elicits strong portions of both (ex: even though she's hot she's still crazy so I'm going to avoid her), they'll look at what they perceive as BEING best for them and then run with that choice. I think women are more likely to favour emotion over logic when both are present (ex: I know I shouldn't date him but I feel so attracted to him), they look at what they perceive as FEELING to be the best choice and run with that.

Just my opinion, obviously gross generalizations are just that.
 
Of course they are.
You did good phrasing the question, making it PC and seeming like you weren't hinting that you already knew the answer. ;)
 
I'm a firm believer that men think with logic, and women think with emotion.

Guys say: I think we should do this.....

Women say: I feel we should do this.....
 
Tech Kinetics said:
I'm a firm believer that men think with logic, and women think with emotion.

Guys say: I think we should do this.....

Women say: I feel we should do this.....
Click to expand...


White people are all Dee De Dee De Dee Dee Dee De
Black people are all Doo Do Doo Do Doo Do Do Doo
8(
 
I've always felt that the difference between men and women really is that there isn't any psychologically.

Each person differs and some men think more emotionally than some women do and vice versa. Trying to pile ALL women into one category and ALL men into one category is a huge waste of time and extremely sexist IMO.
 
it might not be true, but either way i don't see what's sexist about it. that's like saying "black people are better at basketball than white people" is racist. obviously, not all black people are better than all white people at basketball. But it is an empirically testable observation which happens to be true. you look at the percentage of professional basketball players who are black vs the percentage of black people in the population. I think that's a pretty good indicator that there's something going on there. Whether it is due to innate physical ability of sociological factors is certainly up for debate, but the simple fact remains.

what would be racist/sexist would be to assume that someone's being black is sufficient for their being good at basketball, or the someone's being a women means that they inevitably are to reason more emotionally. I don't think any of the serious posters in this thread have said that though.

edit: duh... I just read your post again spork. looks like we agree...
 
I don't understand why people in this thread think it's sexist about what I mentioned in my comment earlier.

Do you even know how many times Dr. Phil has said those exact same lines on national television?
Is it because he's a doctor so he can get away with sexist comments, or is it because he's famous?
Maybe people like to listen to him because he knows what the hell he's talking about!

If Oprah Winfrey says: Women should do this, and men should do that!
Wouldn't you think that's very sexist as well?
 
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In those cases I think that both Dr. Phil and Oprah would be being sexist.

People shouldn't be generalized because of their sex, race, etc. Everyone thinks differently, acts differently, and is different no matter what their gender.
 
spork said:
People shouldn't be generalized because of their sex, race, etc. Everyone thinks differently, acts differently, and is different no matter what their gender.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I necessarily agree with that. just because everyone is different doesn't mean that we can't make generalizations at all. white women generally wear make up. nothing sexist about that. it's not making the generalizations that's harmful. assuming that they apply to everyone is.
 
I agree that every one does make generalizations, it's natural. To say that one makes none at all would most likely be a lie.

Unfortunately too many people do assume that their generalizations apply to every one. :\
 
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