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> nor would I expect to see articles like the following: http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/08/some-scientific-argum.. http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/08/s

> nor would I expect to see articles like the following: http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/08/some-scientific-argum.. http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/08/some-scientific-argum.... That article is a great example of swaying people by pretending the scientific consensus is inconclusive. Yet if you read what they are actually saying none of them are disagreeing with Damore.

n4r9 8y ago
Most of them have mild to strong disagreement with the memo, on the basis of poor/biased research, weak argumentation or unfounded/irrelevant conclusions. Suzanne Sadedin: > TL;DR: Yes, men and women are biologically different — which doesn’t mean what the author thinks it does. The article perniciously misrepresents the nature and significance of known sex differences to advance what appears to be a covert alt-right agenda. > It argues for biologically determined sex differences in personality based on extremely weak evidence > It completely fails to understand the current state of research on sex differences, which is based in neuroscience, epigenetics and developmental biology. > It argues that cognitive sex differences influence performance in software engineering, but presents no supporting evidence. Available evidence does not support the claim. Rosalind C. Barnett and Caryl Rivers: > Much of the data that Damore provides in his memo is suspect, outdated or has other problems. > Baron-Cohen’s study had major problems. It was an “outlier” study. No one else has replicated these findings, including Baron-Cohen himself. It is so flawed as to be almost meaningless. Why? The experiment lacked crucial controls against experimenter bias and was badly designed. > Many of Damore’s controversial conclusions rest heavily on one recent study and much older, now-discredited research, ignoring reams of data that tell a very different story. David P Schmitt: > It is not clear to me how such sex differences are relevant to the Google workplace. Cynthia Lee: > Regardless of whether biological differences exist, there is no shortage of glaring evidence, in individual stories and in scientific studies, that women in tech experience bias and a general lack of a welcoming environment, as do underrepresented minorities.
- sheepmullet 8y ago
  > Most of them have mild to strong disagreement with the memo A scientific disagreement? I’m not seeing any links to any recent meta analysis etc. Nor even any strong claims like “there are no major biological sex differences in personality”. The only strong assertion is that a paper Damore used about intelligence differences has major flaws. But then if you have read the memo you know that that was hardly the main thrust. The scientists who were quoted were being deliberately content-free.
  - n4r9 8y ago
    Yes, scientific disagreement. These are scientists who study gender and evolutionary psychology and say that Damore's scientific claims are unjustified. If you follow through from the links in the article I posted, you'll find further links to comprehensive sources. I'll do some of the work for you: > Lise Eliot, associate professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the Chicago Medical School, did an exhaustive review of the scientific literature on human brains from birth to adolescence. She concluded, in her book “Pink Brain, Blue Brain,”[0] that there is “surprisingly little solid evidence of sex differences in children’s brains.” > Sex differences in cognitive abilities have been well-studied, so it’s intriguing that Damore chooses to ignore this vast literature to focus on personality[1]. The reason, however, quickly becomes clear when we look at the evidence: namely, there’s zero evidence that suggests women should make worse programmers. > There is much literature that flat-out contradicts Baron-Cohen's study, providing evidence that male and female infants tend to respond equally to people and objects, notes Elizabeth Spelke, co-director of Harvard’s Mind Brain Behavior Interfaculty Initiative[2]. [0] https://www.amazon.com/Pink-Brain-Blue-Differences-Troublesome/dp/0547394594/ https://www.amazon.com/Pink-Brain-Blue-Differences-Troubleso... [1] https://sites.google.com/site/dianehalperncmc//books/sex-differences-in-cognitive-abilities https://sites.google.com/site/dianehalperncmc//books/sex-dif... [2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16366817 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16366817

n4r9 8y ago

Most of them have mild to strong disagreement with the memo, on the basis of poor/biased research, weak argumentation or unfounded/irrelevant conclusions. Suzanne Sadedin: > TL;DR: Yes, men and women are biologically different — which doesn’t mean what the author thinks it does. The article perniciously misrepresents the nature and significance of known sex differences to advance what appears to be a covert alt-right agenda. > It argues for biologically determined sex differences in personality based on extremely weak evidence > It completely fails to understand the current state of research on sex differences, which is based in neuroscience, epigenetics and developmental biology. > It argues that cognitive sex differences influence performance in software engineering, but presents no supporting evidence. Available evidence does not support the claim. Rosalind C. Barnett and Caryl Rivers: > Much of the data that Damore provides in his memo is suspect, outdated or has other problems. > Baron-Cohen’s study had major problems. It was an “outlier” study. No one else has replicated these findings, including Baron-Cohen himself. It is so flawed as to be almost meaningless. Why? The experiment lacked crucial controls against experimenter bias and was badly designed. > Many of Damore’s controversial conclusions rest heavily on one recent study and much older, now-discredited research, ignoring reams of data that tell a very different story. David P Schmitt: > It is not clear to me how such sex differences are relevant to the Google workplace. Cynthia Lee: > Regardless of whether biological differences exist, there is no shortage of glaring evidence, in individual stories and in scientific studies, that women in tech experience bias and a general lack of a welcoming environment, as do underrepresented minorities.

sheepmullet 8y ago
> Most of them have mild to strong disagreement with the memo A scientific disagreement? I’m not seeing any links to any recent meta analysis etc. Nor even any strong claims like “there are no major biological sex differences in personality”. The only strong assertion is that a paper Damore used about intelligence differences has major flaws. But then if you have read the memo you know that that was hardly the main thrust. The scientists who were quoted were being deliberately content-free.
- n4r9 8y ago
  Yes, scientific disagreement. These are scientists who study gender and evolutionary psychology and say that Damore's scientific claims are unjustified. If you follow through from the links in the article I posted, you'll find further links to comprehensive sources. I'll do some of the work for you: > Lise Eliot, associate professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the Chicago Medical School, did an exhaustive review of the scientific literature on human brains from birth to adolescence. She concluded, in her book “Pink Brain, Blue Brain,”[0] that there is “surprisingly little solid evidence of sex differences in children’s brains.” > Sex differences in cognitive abilities have been well-studied, so it’s intriguing that Damore chooses to ignore this vast literature to focus on personality[1]. The reason, however, quickly becomes clear when we look at the evidence: namely, there’s zero evidence that suggests women should make worse programmers. > There is much literature that flat-out contradicts Baron-Cohen's study, providing evidence that male and female infants tend to respond equally to people and objects, notes Elizabeth Spelke, co-director of Harvard’s Mind Brain Behavior Interfaculty Initiative[2]. [0] https://www.amazon.com/Pink-Brain-Blue-Differences-Troublesome/dp/0547394594/ https://www.amazon.com/Pink-Brain-Blue-Differences-Troubleso... [1] https://sites.google.com/site/dianehalperncmc//books/sex-differences-in-cognitive-abilities https://sites.google.com/site/dianehalperncmc//books/sex-dif... [2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16366817 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16366817