Picture yourself as a stereotypical male (opens in new tab)

(mitadmissions.org)

9 pointskarenxcheng10y ago4 comments

4 comments

From the article: "As it turns out, there is zero statistically significant gender difference in mental rotation ability after test-takers are asked to imagine themselves as stereotypical men for a few minutes. None. An entire standard deviation of female underperformance is negated on this condition."

hugh410y ago

That's really surprising, if it's true.

I'd like to see this one replicated before I start believing it.

I wonder whether it could be useful for other things. If I want to be a better public speaker or tennis player, can I spend five minutes visualising myself as a better public speaker or tennis player? (I wouldn't be surprised if the answer is yes for the first since public speaking is so confidence-dependent, but what about the latter?)

onion2k10y ago

That's really surprising, if it's true.

It's surprising that years of conditioning to perform worse at spatial reasoning can be mitigated by reading a couple of paragraphs, but that's all. People having an equal ability at a mental function regardless of their sex is not even remotely surprising.

roguecoder10y ago

This is particularly fascinating to think about in the context of all the companies proclaiming they hire "smart" engineers.

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