I Don't Want to be Right

[kandrathe]

Stereotype threat, along with most other priming phenomena, have not largely held up to replication and meta-analysis. It's a neat idea, but it isn't well supported by the evidence at present.

Social science in general, and experimental psychology in particular, is suffering from a pretty bad case of false positives. The misuse of very crude statistical hypothesis testing and "statistical significance" as the threshold for publication has been pernicious. Though it does generate a constant stream of attention-grabbing headlines.

-Jester

What I said above in my first post fits into a quote by Goethe, "If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that."

I believe the negative of that idea also exists, in that if people constantly tear you down, you will begin to believe it yourself.

Would you agree though that in our society, discrimination and self-discrimination are an interrelated vicious circle. For gender say; the difficulty is in unpacking "what {wo}men want" from "what cultural norms pressure {wo}men to want". From birth, consciously or subconsciously, we reinforce gender stereotypes. Can we examine ourselves and even know which of our impulses are natural (correct), and which are imprinted expectations? Stereotypes are built on the simplified over-generalized notions and norms of the society.

Then again, civilization has brought us beyond our basic carnal instincts, and we engage in the rational process of compromise to get along with our neighbors in a society. This is good for us, and good for our neighbors -- rather than having to watch our backs lest we be their prey, we instead look out for each other allowing us more time to be productive.

Looking at gender again (as it is common), it is clear that some progress in gender equality has been achieved in western culture, yet much of the patriarchal nature remains (e.g. the other thread delving into prostitution. Contrast with other parts of society that may be a hundred (i.e. Japan), or some hundreds (middle east) years away from us. Is it liberating to decriminalize the sex trade, or does it perpetuate a stereotype of a patriarchal society where everything is commoditized for predominantly male consumption. Obviously, male and female are differently structured organisms, and still, equality is possible across a broad spectrum of what really matters in civilized society. We remain, animal, and mammal, with our instincts, pheromones, courtship dances, and whatnot. It doesn't mean I'm going to like auto mechanics, or be any better at them than my wife. Which is no on the first part, and yes on the second. My view is really that as individuals our gender roles are really a negotiation with every person we might count as friend or mate. Where norms and stereotypes are troubling are when we are bombarded by media and thereby social expectations to conform to a "Normal" as correct, or worse to shun anything not normal as aberrant and therefore wrong. As in the Marriage question in the US, the issue from my perspective was in ever encoding the Norm as law.

Here is an interesting reflection back to Bolty's OP. In Star Trek, the one thing that didn't much change in a Gene Roddenberry vision of the future is in gender roles and equality. The one decidedly anchor of the series and movies has been the male virility of the Captain. It is hard to find examples of females in power, yet numerous examples of them being objects of desire. While perhaps humans may have learned to better coexist on earth, the universe is filled with prejudice. A major theme, beyond the brains over brawn, is that the enlightened (as exemplified by Vulcans ) seek a broader coexistence with the universe of aliens, being preferable to very destructive interplanetary/galactic warfare. There is still a need for force to back up reason. The starships, even ones designed for exploration are armed with weapons and soldiers.