Transcript Nesse, R.M., Silverman, A., & Bortz, A., (1990). Sex

Nesse, R.M., Silverman, A., & Bortz, A.,
(1990). Sex Differences in Ability to
Recognize Family Resemblance. Ethology
and Sociobiology. 11, 11-21
Alexandra Alonzo
Kateri Broussard
Alana Pontrelli
Nesse, R.M., Silverman, A., & Bortz,
A. (1990). Sex Differences in Ability
Are men or women better
at recognizing family
resemblance?
•
Folk psychologists predict that
women will be better at recognizing
differences due to the belief that
women are better than men at social
tasks.
• Evolutionary psychologists predict
that men will be better at recognizing
differences due to paternity
confidence and potentially due to
natural selection.
Nesse, R.M., Silverman, A., & Bortz,
A. (1990). Sex Differences in Ability
Folk Psychologists
• They were approached at
an outdoor fair
• 64 out of 65 thought
women would be superior
at recognizing family
resemblance
Nesse, R.M., Silverman, A., & Bortz,
A. (1990). Sex Differences in Ability
Evolutionary
Psychologists
• They were approached at
a conference
• 13 out of 19 predicted
that men would do better at
recognizing family
resemblance
Nesse, R.M., Silverman, A., & Bortz,
A. (1990). Sex Differences in Ability
Methods
• 200 Caucasian parent/child
photographs (only 24 were
used)
•Father/daughter
•Father/son
•Mother/daughter
•Mother/son
•Only ½ were related
Nesse, R.M., Silverman, A., & Bortz,
A. (1990). Sex Differences in Ability
Methods cont’d
•8 additional single photos were
added to asses the ability to recall
faces
•4 had been seen before, 4 hadn’t
•200 subjects used (92 males, 108
females)
•Motivated by $50 reward if they got
the highest score
•Asked to mark “yes”/”no” to affirm
parent/child relationship
Nesse, R.M., Silverman, A., & Bortz,
A. (1990). Sex Differences in Ability
Results
•
Women and men equal in ability to
judge family resemblance
• Both sexes were better able to
judge resemblance for mothers
• Men and women were better at
judging relatedness for children of
their own sex
•Women were superior at the ability
to recall faces
Nesse, R.M., Silverman, A., & Bortz,
A. (1990). Sex Differences in Ability
Discussion
• Ability is not influenced by
demographics (age, number of
children, number of siblings,
education, or marital status)
• Researchers proposed that
the ability to recognize family
resemblance doesn’t improve
by experience, but rather is an
aspect of social intelligence
Nesse, R.M., Silverman, A., & Bortz,
A. (1990). Sex Differences in Ability
Discussion cont’d
Critique of Folk
psychology
• Generalization that
women tend to be better
at social tasks (very
common and consistent
error)
Nesse, R.M., Silverman, A., & Bortz,
A. (1990). Sex Differences in Ability
Discussion cont’d
Critique of Evolutionary
psychology
• Individuals did not spend
enough time on question
• Put too much importance
on paternity confidence
and ignored other factors
Nesse, R.M., Silverman, A., & Bortz,
A. (1990). Sex Differences in Ability
Conclusion
Sex differences would not
result from natural
selection
• Cost of maintaining the
mechanism is small
• Same benefits to both
sexes
Nesse, R.M., Silverman, A., & Bortz,
A. (1990). Sex Differences in Ability
Critical Review
•
The study had an unbalanced
number of folk psychologists vs.
evolutionary psychologists
• They had an insufficient sample of
humanity (only used Caucasians for
photographs)
• They didn’t specify what the race
of their sample was (it has been
shown that it is easier to identify
differences among people of your
own race)
Nesse, R.M., Silverman, A., & Bortz,
A. (1990). Sex Differences in Ability
Any questions???
Nesse, R.M., Silverman, A., & Bortz,
A. (1990). Sex Differences in Ability