Are Sex Stereotypes True?
My appearance on the Spiked podcast with Fraser Myers
During my recent book tour, I was scheduled to sit down in person with Fraser Myers of Spiked magazine to talk about my book, A Billion Years of Sex Differences. But the British weather had other ideas: A heatwave scuppered our plans, and we ended up doing the interview remotely after I’d returned to Malaysia.
It was a great conversation. Among other things, we discussed:
The largest psychological sex difference ever documented (it’s probably not what you’d guess)
Sex differences in toy preferences, sexual behavior, and aggression
Why men and women tend to gravitate toward different occupations
The gender-equality paradox: the surprising finding that some sex differences are larger, rather than smaller, in wealthier, more gender-equal nations
Why we should talk openly about sex differences rather than pretending they don’t exist
The interview is now up on YouTube and the Spiked website.
If you enjoy the conversation and want to dig deeper into the issues, you can pick up a copy of A Billion Years of Sex Differences at the link below.
Follow me on Twitter/X for more psychology, evolution, and science.
Upgrade to a Premium Subscription
This post was free to read for everyone. If you’d like access to all Nature-Nurture-Nietzsche-Newsletter content, please consider a premium subscription. A premium subscription gives you:
Full access to all new posts and the archive
Full access to exclusive content such as my “12 Things Everyone Should Know” posts, Linkfests, and other regular features
Full access to excerpts from A Billion Years of Sex Differences
The ability to post comments and engage with me and the N3 Newsletter community
Premium subscriptions also help support my efforts to explore important and controversial topics, and give me the financial freedom to follow the evidence wherever it leads without fear of cancellation.
Thank you!
Steve
Related Reading from the Archive
12 Things Everyone Should Know About Evolutionary Psychology
This is the latest post in my “12 Things Everyone Should Know” series. You can access the full collection here.
A Billion Years of Sex Differences
I recently gave a professorial lecture at my university, focused on some of my theoretical work on the evolution of human sex differences. The following is a lightly edited transcript of the lecture.
Decoding the Gender-Equality Paradox
One of the most surprising discoveries of the last few decades is known as the gender-equality paradox. This refers to the fact that, for a large number of traits, sex differences are larger, rather than smaller, in more gender-equal nations. The finding is surprising because it seems entirely plausible that, in cultures where men and women are treated differently and play different roles in society, sex differences will tend to be magnified. Even if there’s an innate contribution to many sex differences, this seems like a reasonable expectation. But the reasonable expectation turns out to be wrong. In fact, it’s not just wrong; it has things back-to-front, at least for some traits.