The Royal Institution
Have new brain imaging techniques really revealed that women and men are ‘hardwired’ for their gender roles? Or has neuroscience become misappropriated to justify gender gaps? Professor of cognitive neuroimaging Gina Rippon investigates.
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Watch the Q&A: https://youtu.be/1swI97JbuUA
You can buy Gina’s book “The Gendered Brain” now – https://geni.us/EHzSGx
There is a long history of debate about biological sex differences and their part in determining gender roles, with the ‘biology is destiny’ mantra being used to legitimise imbalances in these roles. The tradition is continuing, with new brain imaging techniques being hailed as sources of evidence of the ‘essential’ differences between men and women, and the concept of ‘hardwiring’ sneaking into popular parlance as a brain-based explanation for all kinds of gender gaps.
But the field is littered with many problems. Some are the product of ill-informed popular science writing (neurotrash) based on the misunderstanding or misrepresentation of what brain imaging can tell us. Some, unfortunately involve poor science, with scientists using outdated and disproved stereotypes to design and interpret their research (neurosexism). These problems obscure or ignore the ‘neuronews’, the breakthroughs in our understanding of how plastic and permeable our brains are, and how the concept of ‘hard-wiring’ should be condemned to the dustbin of neurohistory.
This talk aims to offer ways of rooting out the neurotrash, stamping out the neurosexism and making way for neuronews.
Gina Rippon is Professor of Cognitive Neuroimaging at Aston University. Her research involves the application of brain imaging techniques, particularly electroencephalography, (EEG) and magnetoencephalography (MEG), to studies of normal and abnormal cognitive processes.
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LOL her work has been discredited. Strange how scientists can determine male from female with 93% accuracy: https://www.pnas.org/content/113/14/E1968
“Physiologically there is no reason people respond differently to colors”… this is neurotrash in the making.
As Steven Pinker once said, Even IF there are anatomical and neurological differences between male and female brains, that’s no excuse for discrimination against women
Wonderful talk! I think Jordan Peterson would really appreciate this talk. Especially at 40:00 . Maybe we are not making equality between the sexes a priority.
19:04 But man are indeed better playing chess.
every other youtube video streams fine
why does this video seem laggy
the electrons going across the wires beneath the surface seem to be moving so slow
For a brief moment I thought she was wearing an apron and was going to cook a dinner.
Women often say they are smarter than men… yet most CEOs are male and ALL presidents of the U.S. have been male.
It was the end of civilization as we knew it. Feminism destroyed the family structure.
Ideology over science–perhaps her female brain is just hard wired that way. Why is it that 80% of the time you can distinguish a female brain from male by looking at it? Gina Rippon will go down in the annals of history as a buffoon
I am a female and I can tell what she and other women who thinks like her is implying here. Lol. Nice try.
Rippon's assertion that people don't infer from the male heart or kidney being bigger that it meaningfully different from female, then why should people think that just because the male brain is bigger that its different.. well, a bigger heart pumps more blood and in fewer beats, and a bigger kidney processes more toxins per unit of time, and therefore a bigger brain has to be different than a smaller one.. you can't just "correct for size".
Very Vic v Vic v Vic v fav Vic v Vic c v. C. Cv cv c
It doesn't matter who makes the brain imaging, what matters is who reads it…
Great speech, love the way gender essentialists are triggered by the truth in the comments section.
Did we travel into the past? I thought this was settled… The golden rule is good enough for me.
I'm proud of how woke some people are in the comment section, and I find it funny how the numbskulls are confused as to why the former mentioned people are downvoting the video.
Oh look at that, 328 sexists downvoted because they feel irrationally threatened by an intelligent woman. And LOL before you get too irrationally angry at me overgeneralizing you for down voting and want to rage in defense of your non-existent PhD in six different fields you acquired through a rudimentary google search, hmm prejudice sucks doesn't it?
Damn fine lecture by the way! Congrats!
Very interesting. I agree, there isn't a level playing field, I know that in my own family that there wasn't a level playing field for my brother and I. We're both grown men now, and the differences we were taught are still playing out in our lives. When putting a puzzle together, one looks for similarities between pieces in order to find those that go together.
Many good points but it would be remarkable indeed if a lengthy history of sexual selection did not result in some sizable differences between males and females in brain structure and function.
This is not a science lecture this is ideological activism. Shame on you RI.
What a wonderful talk. A priceless reminder that science writers may overlook the fact that our science-based medical technologies are not as nuanced and precise as we may wish them to be. The dead fish brain story (@ t=1473) perfectly captures that.
It may be that the business models, the ones that news agencies use as a means to maximize profit by rewarding journalists who possess exceptional skills at creating clickbaity titles and content, are a part of the problem. It takes so much work to undo the nonsense that even our most trusted news resources are often professing as being true. If only the time and energy spent on undoing nonsense was spent on helping to enlighten and to empower our species.
well men watch porn and steal undies but men and women are the same … or something.