Men & women have different personalities says new research....

[sportsfanatic]

www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8992639/Men-and-women-have-distinct-personalities.html

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2082398/Surprise-Men-women-really-ARE-different-Sexes-share-just-10-cent-personality-traits.html

Given the recent thread on physical differences what does everyone think about the latest 'research' today on personality differences?

I've posted the Daily Fail link only because it has a pretty blue and pink column comparison

As someone who has (and misses) traits from each column and confounds pretty much every female stereotype, I am now wondering "Am I a hermaphrodite"?

Seriously, looking around my friends I can't think of any who are not a mix of the two and have (and miss) traits from both lists.

[CogitoErgoSometimes]

I know what you're saying.... another hermaphrodite here according to every psychometric test I've ever taken, shall we form a club? :) ... but, taking the 'special' people like ourselves out of the equation and looking at the chunky centre of the normal distribution curves, there probably are some very general averages that fall along gender lines if you have a test population big enough. Quite what practical use anyone puts those to, I'm not sure, but I expect marketing or design companies are big customers.

[SardineQueen]

Right am preparing to froth

I liked this at the start of the Telegraph article:

"But the new analysis published in the Public Library of Science One journal revealed that each sex shares a distinct set of characteristics, with just 18 per cent of men having a typically "female" set of traits or vice versa."

1 in 5 is loads

[SardineQueen]

Interesting that both the articles contain quotes from other scientists questioning the methodology etc but that the headline is very stark.

They never report on studies that say there isn't much difference, do they.

Also, if they are looking at adult personality, how do they deal with the old problem of nature vs nurture?

Whole thing v annoying indeed, if only because so many people glance at the headlines and it reinforces their pre-existing assumptions, which makes it so much harder for feminists and others to move forwards with stuff.

[BeeBawBabbity]

Oh yes any results gained from 'estimating average differences in scores' is bound to be conclusive. And who is the 'average' man and the 'average' woman anyway?

Surprise, we ALL have different personalities. Why the constant need to correlate that with gender?

[HandDivedScallopsrgreat]

As SQ said how of these differences are down to nurture (or social conditioning)?

[HandDivedScallopsrgreat]

how many

[vesuvia]

I think this research is unlikely to lead to increased choice for females.

[SardineQueen]

Vesuvia yes

This sort of thing is so dangerous:

"The study could explain why certain professions, such as engineering, are dominated by a particular sex in spite of efforts by governments to promote equality, Dr Paul Irwing, of Manchester Business School, who co-authored the paper, said.
He added: "You find far fewer women in engineering and it is normally contended that you cannot explain this in individual differences, but that is on the assumption they are small and our study shows they are huge.
"People are self-selecting into careers that fit their personality characteristics ? it is the complete opposite of what people have assumed for the past 100 years."

[Trills]

People have different personalities - what a surprise

People's personalities are affected by their environment - nothing new here

So if you take two groups of people who have been treated differently from the moment they were born, you might find some differences when you measure personality traits

Is this really news?

[MillyR]

Surely this all depends on how you define different personality traits. I could invent a personality test which shows that men and women have exactly the same personality or one that showed there was a huge difference based on cultural gender stereotypes.

[LRDtheFeministDragon]

"People are self-selecting into careers that fit their personality characteristics ? it is the complete opposite of what people have assumed for the past 100 years."

Erm, bollocks. And then quite a bit more bollocks. People have been talking about career self-selection by personality type for yonks, haven't they? My granny remembers doing proto-careers advice on that basis and that would have been in the 1930s.

[sportsfanatic]

As a matter of interest how many women on here have personalities that entirely fit the pink column? And if we have any men posting how many entirely fit the blue column?

Or are you mostly like me - a mixture?

I find all this stuff highly dubious.....as another poster said, we never get to see the methodology.

This reminds me of those online 'where do you fit in the political spectrum'? questionnaires where I find I am (apparently) according to my answers somewhere to the left of Ghandi and at the far end of the 'tender' spectrum. In reality I am exceedingly tough and right of centre on some issues and exceedingly tender and left of centre and liberal on others. It all depends on the questions, how you phrase them and what options you give for answers......

This 'research' sounds very similar.

[SardineQueen]

I think that the things on those list are quite hard to judge in yourself - I find it hard anyway. Notice that men have 8 traits and women 7 -that's a bit odd. Self reliance is on the female list and that isn't a stereotypical female trait at all.

The whole thing is silly. In my considered opinion

[alexpolismum]

Exactly, sportsfanatic. All statistics are down to the questions - you decide what sort of answers you want, then word the questions accordingly when conducting an opinion poll, I can't help wondering if this was similar.

How does one define a personality? What things are really down to my personality, and what are just things I do because it's convenient or a habit drilled in from childhood?

[BelleDameSansMerci]

What Trills said...

[alexpolismum]

What does "emotional stability" mean exactly, anyway? Judging by the number of angry men you can read about in the Relationships section here on MN it must mean "stable in the upper end of fury"

"Tension" on the women's list - what do they mean by that? Does it mean women worry? Tense with excitement? Fear? All of the above?

Funny that "Openness to change" is on the men's list - they should all be feminists then, as feminism is working towards major social changes!

[Yama]

Well, my dh has move of the pink than the blue chracter traits. Maybe that's why he's a feminist ...

Seriously though, if people like Dr Paul Irwing can so spectacularly miss point the then I may as well give up.

[Yama]

And clearly when I said move I meant more.

[SardineQueen]

My brain is quite male all over, apparently, yama.

And yet, look! Here are some boobs.

The whole thing is outrageously baffling.

[SardineQueen]

DH comes out neutral on the BBC brain thing that says I am a bloke.

He is kind, thoughtful, nurturing, patient with the children etc.

But look! He's a massive ex rugby player with thighs like tree trunks. And lo! What's that? By Jingo it's a penis!

Outrageously baffling. No wonder the science boffin chaps types are foxed.

[Yama]

Yeah, I'm slightly more blue than pink SardineQueen. Don't know if I'm downgrading my pink characteristics when compared to my wonderfully ppink dh though. Hmm, a headscratcher.

[Dozer]

Reminds me of those awful personality/relationship quizzes in teen girls' mags!

[SardineQueen]

It is a real confusion isn't it.

Maybe I should invent a quiz to prove that none of us actually exist, and release it to the papers

[TheRealTillyMinto]

Crap crap crap crap Crappy old crap..... 1. The survey is self reporting .i.e. Do you think you are sensitive? It is not an objective measurement therefore it tells you more about people believe they should be seen than actually are. Other studies have shown that the more you hold beliefs that women are one way and men another, the less realistic about yourself and the more you bias your reporting. 2. Journalists just want stories & know f all about science. A friend is a times business journalist & knows jack shit about business or economics, sometimes to a laughable level. Journalism is just about selling papers not accurate reporting...

[TheRealTillyMinto]

She is a great journalist... They never let the facts get in the way of a good story...