The Science of Controversial Science
How people react to research on sex differences: Part 1
Welcome to The Science of Controversial Science: a new series where I explore what happens when research collides with society’s deepest taboos. I’m kicking things off with a two-part exploration of my own work on how people react to research on sex differences. In this first installment, I examine why findings that put men in a better light than women tend to trigger a stronger negative reaction than those that do the reverse. On top of that, I explore the surprising discovery that people not only massively overestimate how biased others are in favor of their own sex, they even get the direction of men’s bias wrong.