Women and Emotional Thinking: Examining a Common Gender Stereotype

[300072507]

Yesterday I got into a discussion with a girl from school about how women are generally more emotional thinkers than men. What mean is that they base their decisions more heavily on how they feel 'in their heart' rather than possibly looking at the big picture. It's more of a personal (dare I say selfish?) kind of thing. She agreed with me, until I put the example of how women vote. Politicians can occasionally win elections because they are very attractive and good with kids. I would attribute this kind of effect to the female vote. Now, I'm not saying that men don't make stupid decisions, but they don't usually base their vote on how cool they think their candidate is.

Anyway, she still didn't buy my argument (possibly because she's a lady haha) so I told her that I would come back to her after the weekend with a better one. Any suggestions?

I'm pretty firm in my beliefs about this generalisation of women - probably because my mother is an extremely rational thinker, so growing up I was never around 'that' kind of girl, and now it REALLY pops out to me. I'd like to stress, though, that this isn't meant to be some kind of jab at women. You're all wonderful and men have their flaws too.

 

[Andre]

If you make a post like this, it's apropriate to end it with:

:uhh: Have mercy *runs and hides

 

[hypatia]

Sorry 300072507, that was really stupid.

 

[300072507]

Yea, see I don't understand why the immediate reaction is to be offended.

 

[DanP]

Yesterday I got into a discussion with a girl from school about how women are generally more emotional thinkers than men. What mean is that they base their decisions more heavily on how they feel 'in their heart' rather than possibly looking at the big picture. .....

I am selling tickets for this threads. Complimentary popcorn. Who wants to be the bookie ?

 

[DanP]

Yea, see I don't understand why the immediate reaction is to be offended.

I don't think she was offended, I think she just told you that you wrote a pretty stupid post.

 

[turbo]

Im selling tickets for this threads. Complimentary popcorn. Who wants to be the bookie ?

I'm not giving odds. FAIL!

 

[drizzle]

Yea, see I don't understand why the immediate reaction is to be offended.

:rofl:

I don't think she was offended, I think she just told you that you wrote a pretty stupid post.

... Are you a ... You know?

 

[Lisa!]

So you feel women think that way!:tongue2:
Nice trick to know women around here, btw!

If you make a post like this, it's apropriate to end it with:

:uhh: Have mercy *runs and hides

:rofl:

 

[Kronos5253]

Yesterday I got into a discussion with a girl from school about how women are generally more emotional thinkers than men.

I disagree... I think the general population, whether it be male or female, make most of their decisions based on their emotions. I think men and women just make their decisions on different emotions. For men it's generally anger, frustration, sexually driven or... No actually that's about it haha. I think if Hilary Clinton was more attractive to the general male population, she would have been the Democratic choice instead of Obama.

What mean is that they base their decisions more heavily on how they feel 'in their heart' rather than possibly looking at the big picture. It's more of a personal (dare I say selfish?) kind of thing. She agreed with me, until I put the example of how women vote. Politicians can occasionally win elections because they are very attractive and good with kids. I would attribute this kind of effect to the female vote. Now, I'm not saying that men don't make stupid decisions, but they don't usually base their vote on how cool they think their candidate is.

Again, I disagree. A lot of the reason Obama got a lot of votes is because of his demenor and his attitude and grace while speaking. JFK was the same way. They have a certain appeal to them that makes their personality attractive to the general public, regardless of gender.

Also, this is the woman's side:

Politicians can occasionally win elections because they are very attractive and good with kids

Are you saying that if a woman ran for a political position that was physically attractive and liked to drink beer and play video games that she wouldn't get most of the male population's votes because of that, instead of looking at the big picture? That's kind of a personal (dare I say selfish?) way to put it.

Anyway, she still didn't buy my argument (possibly because she's a lady haha) so I told her that I would come back to her after the weekend with a better one. Any suggestions?

Yeah, give up haha If a lady was arguing with you that generally all men make their decisions based on the wrong head (if you catch my meaning), no matter how many examples she gave, would you side with her on it?

I'm pretty firm in my beliefs about this generalisation of women - probably because my mother is an extremely rational thinker, so growing up I was never around 'that' kind of girl, and now it REALLY pops out to me. I'd like to stress, though, that this isn't meant to be some kind of jab at women. You're all wonderful and men have their flaws too.

I can understand your standpoint on that, but I think you need to look at the big picture instead of narrowing it down to just women. Most of the HUMAN population make decisions based on their emotions. That's part of human nature. Fight or flight, right? Hint: That's based on emotions :)

Not a bad arguement, but I think it's too one sided in your head in my opinion.

But that's just my 2-cents :) Take it or leave it as you will!

 

[DanP]

... Are you a ... You know?

I really don't want to know. Some things can scare us for life, hahaha.:rofl:

 

[Klockan3]

Are you saying that if a woman ran for a political position that was physically attractive and liked to drink beer and play video games that she wouldn't get most of the male population's votes because of that, instead of looking at the big picture? That's kind of a personal (dare I say selfish?) way to put it.

She wouldn't get a single vote, neither from the females nor from the males. Maybe from a few extreme variants of feminism. Males do have radically different criterion for "Want to sleep with" and "Respects", otherwise you would not have a lack of women at top positions. On the other hand women base their attraction a lot on respect so I guess that the example got merits in some way.

Maybe it is that since women have more complex desires when it comes to a partner this might get in the way of other things while for men it is very straightforward.

Disclaimer: All "facts" in this post are hypothetical.

 

[300072507]

Hey Kronos,

those are some really great points. I guess I hadn't thought about some of these things enough.

I retract my statements.. until I give it some more thought. :) LOL

 

[Evo]

Maybe it is that since women have more complex desires when it comes to a partner this might get in the way of other things while for men it is very straightforward.

Complex as in sexual desire is not the only criteria? :tongue2:

 

[Jimmy Snyder]

Yesterday I got into a discussion with my wife about just the same thing. It didn't go well.

 

[DanP]

Yesterday I got into a discussion with my wife about just the same thing. It didn't go well.

You could have some interesting discussions at how different rearing environments for boys and girls (pink for girls, blue for boys ) affects social cognition, how behaviors are affected by endocrinology, whatever or not there are evolutionary explicable differences in psychology of man and women, explore why some psychopathology is skewed towards a certain sex...

You just have to choose realistic subjects, and look at them scientifically, this is really not an area where you can afford prejudices like the ones the OP displayed.

 

[magpies]

300072507 if you really want to leave this girl impressed with your knowledge why don't you just come out and say it... "men are smarter then women." This statement will ensure that she is impressed.

 

[zoobyshoe]

She agreed with me, until I put the example of how women vote.

That example, for some reason, soured her agreement. I'd go back and ask what she was talking about before you raised that example.

A lot of women will admit to emotional reasoning because they're proud of it, believe it's ultimately more accurate than logic, and feel men are disabled in so far as they can't do it.

So, I think your course of action should be to simply listen, letting her provide all the examples.

 

[Klockan3]

Complex as in sexual desire is not the only criteria? :tongue2:

Yeah, roughly like that, since we are talking extrapolated generalizations.

 

[epenguin]

I have just recovered from my wastepaper basket a copy of The Economist (5 Aug 2006) which I had thrown there in a clearup today, a rundown on scientific studies of differences between male and female psychology. I had thrown it out without copying because there are hardly any interesting differences reported.

Just one was "contrary to popular myth, men and women are equally good at navigating" which I found hard to believe. However it made more sense with the explanation "But this is another example of a task in which the sexes take different paths to the same destination. Women tend to rely on remembering landmarks, whereas men rely on their geometric skills to work out direction and distance." In fact I have learned to never take directions to a place from a woman - that usually requires about three supplementary phone calls. I rather say "Just tell me the postcode or street name and I'll find it."

The other interesting difference was that women were less aggressive in dropping bombs on an attacker in a videogame. As we would expect. Except that that was only when they thought someone was watching - when they thought they were anonymous they were more aggressive than the men. :rofl:

I think you can still find the article at e.g. http://www.cnblogs.com/phinecos/archive/2006/08/20/481729.html

 

[Moonbear]

Yesterday I got into a discussion with a girl from school about how women are generally more emotional thinkers than men. What mean is that they base their decisions more heavily on how they feel 'in their heart' rather than possibly looking at the big picture. It's more of a personal (dare I say selfish?) kind of thing. She agreed with me, until I put the example of how women vote. Politicians can occasionally win elections because they are very attractive and good with kids. I would attribute this kind of effect to the female vote. Now, I'm not saying that men don't make stupid decisions, but they don't usually base their vote on how cool they think their candidate is.

If you want to prove you're a more rational thinker, provide examples of those politicians who have won elections because they are more attractive and good with kids rather than because they were more qualified than the other candidate, and THEN show that it was the women's vote who swayed that choice.

Anyway, she still didn't buy my argument (possibly because she's a lady haha) so I told her that I would come back to her after the weekend with a better one. Any suggestions?

So, you don't actually have an argument? And you're hoping for us to provide you with one? That doesn't sound very rational to me at all, definitely more emotional.

I'm pretty firm in my beliefs about this generalisation of women

Pretty firm in your beliefs, but you still have no foundation for those beliefs, or else you wouldn't be here asking us to provide an argument for you. Once again, this is sounding very emotional.

- probably because my mother is an extremely rational thinker

And your best example is of a woman who is RATIONAL, not emotional?

, so growing up I was never around 'that' kind of girl, and now it REALLY pops out to me.

So you notice that people are irrational in their thinking, only because they stand out in contrast to your previous experience? And that is supposed to justify somehow that women are less rational? Now it's starting to sound like a bit of confirmation bias as well.

I'd like to stress, though, that this isn't meant to be some kind of jab at women.

Really? How did you think it would be interpreted?

You're all wonderful and men have their flaws too.

More so than you know.

Everything you're trying to argue really runs contrary to evidence on things such as risk-taking behavior. Women tend to not take as many risks as men, even when it can be a hindrance to their progress, career, or financial success. Men are more likely to take a risk based on a "gut feeling" than women who want to analyze everything and be very sure that something is going to be a safe investment.

Of course, that all flies out the window when men get married. Then it gets very hard to compare decision making between the sexes, because as we all know, men don't get to make the decisions once they are married.

 

[rewebster]

Anyway, she still didn't buy my argument (possibly because she's a lady haha) so I told her that I would come back to her after the weekend with a better one. Any suggestions?

do you want to win the argument or get laid?

 

[magpies]

Ya if you don't come up with a better argument you can basically assume she is going to think your stupid for the rest of your life.

 

[DanP]

Moonbear's post reminded me of this:

http://pix.motivatedphotos.com/2009/12/31/633978646320358850-PWNED.jpg

 

[TheStatutoryApe]

She agreed with me, until I put the example of how women vote. Politicians can occasionally win elections because they are very attractive and good with kids. I would attribute this kind of effect to the female vote. Now, I'm not saying that men don't make stupid decisions, but they don't usually base their vote on how cool they think their candidate is.

Studies have shown that people in general (that is both male and female) react positively to the attractiveness of a person. The "cool" guy is also probably a good looking guy in most circumstances.

I'm pretty firm in my beliefs about this generalisation of women - probably because my mother is an extremely rational thinker, so growing up I was never around 'that' kind of girl, and now it REALLY pops out to me. I'd like to stress, though, that this isn't meant to be some kind of jab at women. You're all wonderful and men have their flaws too.

Females are typically treated this way all through out their lives and it conditions many of them to behave this way. On the other side of the coin men are often conditioned to "be a man" by not allowing their emotions to get the better of them.

 

[Brian_C]

Women think?

 

[lisab]

Women think?

Lonely much?

 

[DanP]

Women think?

Tickets on sale again.

 

[magpies]

I once asked a woman what her thoughts where like... never will I forget that awful day.

 

[rewebster]

http://www.lovefatedestiny.com/howwomenthink.htm

 

[Dembadon]

Here we see 300072507. Notice the position shark 30256 (Moonbear) has taken.

 

[DanP]

http://www12.picfront.org/token/73G0/2010/03/14/1785779.jpg

 

[rhody]

If you really are serious in wanting to know how women think, I recommend, "The Female Brain", by Louann Brizendine, published 2006, after 5 years or so of research. The Reference section is over 150 pages long ! Yes, folks she did her homework on this one and then some.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/10/books/review/Henig.t.html"

This thread has a little schizo feel to it, from silly to serious, so anyone who wishes can turn it back to silly. Just thought I would add my two cents. I found the book interesting, and honest, anyone else out there read it too ? Opinions ?

Rhody...

 

[GeorginaS]

If you really are serious in wanting to know how women think, I recommend, "The Female Brain", by Louann Brizendine, published 2006, after 5 years or so of research. The Reference section is over 150 pages long ! Yes, folks she did her homework on this one and then some.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/10/books/review/Henig.t.html"

This thread has a little schizo feel to it, from silly to serious, so anyone who wishes can turn it back to silly. Just thought I would add my two cents. I found the book interesting, and honest, anyone else out there read it too ? Opinions ?

Rhody...

That New York Times review is hardly a strong recommendation for taking the time to read that book, Rhody.

 

[Math Is Hard]

.. Politicians can occasionally win elections because they are very attractive and good with kids. I would attribute this kind of effect to the female vote. Now, I'm not saying that men don't make stupid decisions, but they don't usually base their vote on how cool they think their candidate is..

I'm sure there's a wealth of research out there on this topic. You might want to peruse some before making up your mind. (Unless, of course, you prefer "going with your gut" over taking the analytical approach.)

I came across this abstract of a study on facial appearances of presidential candidates. I thought it was intriguing:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18974841

Male and female voters judged a series of male and female political candidates on how competent, dominant, attractive and approachable they seemed based on their facial appearance. Then they saw a series of pairs of political candidates and decided which politician they would vote for in a hypothetical election for President of the United States. Results indicate that both gender of voter and candidate affect the kinds of facial impressions that predict voting behavior. All voters are likely to vote for candidates who appear more competent. However, male candidates that appear more approachable and female candidates who appear more attractive are more likely to win votes. In particular, men are more likely to vote for attractive female candidates whereas women are more likely to vote for approachable male candidates.

I'd like to read the entire paper, because the abstract doesn't appear to reveal what the top choice was for the male and female voting groups. For instance, did the men prefer attractive females over all the available male and female candidate choices (of equal competence)? Or were attractive females only the top choice when choosing only among the competent female candidates? I'll have to dig this paper up when I get back to work and can access journal articles.

Happily, it does seem to suggest that the appearance of competence is the most influential attribute for voters of either sex.

I think this could be a very interesting thread if there is any hope of keeping it at a somewhat mature level and discussing actual research data. Otherwise, it's just "One young man's opinion on how women think" followed by a bunch of lame pot shots. I know this is General Discussion, but let's not sink to the level of AOL chat.