I don’t think it’s a very disputed fact that women, in general, tend to be more emotional than men.
I thought the present-day standard position among people who have actually thought about the issue rather than just repeating stereotypes is that men don’t actually feel less emotions than women—they just show less emotions, for fear of being seen as feminine.
I wish to dispel the notion that women are “more emotional.” I don’t think we are. I think that the emotions women stereotypically express are what men call “emotions,” and the emotions that men typically express are somehow considered by men to be something else.
I thought the present-day standard position among people who have actually thought about the issue...
By ‘thought about the issue’ do you mean that someone has gathered evidence to this effect? Why do you believe this view to be more accurate than the old stereotype?
Here is a study about emotional changes in transgendered individuals as they go through hormone therapy .
I think it’s more accurate to say that women are more likely to display distress, whereas men are more likely to display aggression, than to say one that women are more “emotional”. But there is almost certainly something which is more biological than social in origin going on here.
I thought the present-day standard position among people who have actually thought about the issue rather than just repeating stereotypes is that men don’t actually feel less emotions than women—they just show less emotions, for fear of being seen as feminine.
There is also a difference in which emotions are felt by (statistical) males vs females and even difference in which felt emotions the statistical males will show when felt.
How else would they estimate how much emotion people feel but by how much they can observe?
Do they have measurements? I don’t care much who has thought about the issue—I’ll go with those who have measured it, and the prima facie evidence supports the original claim in my eyes.
How else would they estimate how much emotion people feel but by how much they can observe?
Look at the people who you know privately, and how much emotion you think they actually experience, vs. how much emotion they show in public, and extrapolate.
Noisy because of individual variations, but it’s a starting point. The proposition certainly isn’t impossible.
As for surveys, I’d probably go with observation over self report. The possibility of accurate observation is a necessary but not sufficient condition for an expectation that self reports would be properly normalized.
I thought the present-day standard position among people who have actually thought about the issue rather than just repeating stereotypes is that men don’t actually feel less emotions than women—they just show less emotions, for fear of being seen as feminine.
I am reminded of this column. Summary:
By ‘thought about the issue’ do you mean that someone has gathered evidence to this effect? Why do you believe this view to be more accurate than the old stereotype?
Here is a study about emotional changes in transgendered individuals as they go through hormone therapy .
I think it’s more accurate to say that women are more likely to display distress, whereas men are more likely to display aggression, than to say one that women are more “emotional”. But there is almost certainly something which is more biological than social in origin going on here.
There is also a difference in which emotions are felt by (statistical) males vs females and even difference in which felt emotions the statistical males will show when felt.
How else would they estimate how much emotion people feel but by how much they can observe?
Do they have measurements? I don’t care much who has thought about the issue—I’ll go with those who have measured it, and the prima facie evidence supports the original claim in my eyes.
Look at the people who you know privately, and how much emotion you think they actually experience, vs. how much emotion they show in public, and extrapolate.
Noisy because of individual variations, but it’s a starting point. The proposition certainly isn’t impossible.
fMRIs. Or anonymous surveys, under the assumption that people lie less on them than the rest of the time.
Anyone got those FMRI measurements?
As for surveys, I’d probably go with observation over self report. The possibility of accurate observation is a necessary but not sufficient condition for an expectation that self reports would be properly normalized.