Talking Sex Differences with Louise Perry
My appearance on the Maiden Mother Matriarch podcast
I recently appeared on one of the best-named podcasts in Podcastistan: the Maiden Mother Matriarch podcast with Louise Perry. We discussed various topics related to my new book, A Billion Years of Sex Differences, including:
The largest psychological sex difference in our species. Can you guess what it is?
The tail-of-the-distribution effect: the fact that even small sex differences at the mean translate into large differences at the extremes of the distribution
When sex stereotypes are right and when they’re wrong
Sex differences in direct vs. indirect aggression
Whether women perpetrate as much intimate partner violence as men
Sex differences in occupational choice
The downsides of affirmative action for women
The greater male variability hypothesis and why it’s controversial
The gender-equality paradox: Is it real?
Why we’re still in denial about sex differences
The episode is available on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, and wherever else you get your podcasts. It’s also available on Louise’s Maiden Mother Matriarch Substack.
You can pick up a copy of my book, A Billion Years of Sex Differences, here.
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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.