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Meta
West Hunter 
That’s about the size of it. For humans at least.
Lol. I introduce students every semester to various non-overlapping or barley overlapping graphs by sex. Every year their jaws drop further. Twenty years ago barely an eyebrow was raised.
grip strength and what else?
Here are a few, XX versus XY chromosomes. Gamete size. Testosterone levels, internal anatomy, and external anatomy. In all of these cases, overlap is either zero or near zero.
Aside from certain measures of physical strength, where I’ve seen separations up to 2 SD, what characteristics do you graph that don’t overlap, or barely overlap? I can’t think of any. (Unless you are talking about hormone levels, which is kind of cheating…)
I think ability to hear very slight sounds is one trait with very little overlap.
I didn’t know that. Which sex has the sharper ears?
(I can invent a biological Just So story to justify either answer.)
Women are considerably better at hearing very faint sounds.
Thank you. Just So story #1: it’s obvs to do with caring for babies.
rorschacht test
it’s obviously to do with overhearing gossip 🙂
How much better? Is it a trait with little overlap, or are they just somewhat better on average?
I hadn’t heard this either, but it sounds interesting. Do you have a link?
Maybe it’s because you’re a man
Maybe it’s because the jobs they pick are noisier hence more hearing loss.
do they hear them or are annoyed by them . seems hearing faint sounds on the hunt would be an advantage in our hunter gatherer society long ago . 200 to 5000 years ago
That’s Just So story #2.
It’s easy this biology lark, isn’t it?
Interesting. Women also have considerably better color discrimination.
I seem to remember that only women are tetrachromats, but I might be wrong.
Interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrachromacy#Humans
How about presence of either an XY or XX chromosome pair?
That’s what I was thinking,
Seriously?! Is this important? People did not need to know about chromosomes to tell men from women centuries ago and knowing about their presence tell us nothing about the distribution of characteristics we might care about.
Characteristics we might care about—like potential to bear children? Potential to father children? It’s perfectly normal and expected to care about those things, not caring about them is the exception.
What we’re looking for here is characteristics which are not definitional. I.e., characteristics that one might reasonably expect to have a lot of overlap between men and women yet don’t, thus dropping the jaws of Spencer’s students further every year. Spencer implied that he had multiple examples and I was just wondering what they were, since aside from a few involving physical strength I can’t think of any.
Here are a few, XX versus XY chromosomes. Gamete size. Testosterone levels, internal anatomy, and external anatomy. In all of these cases, overlap is either zero or near zero.
red green colour blind .
related joke from cold war times:
An American says: “there is freedom of speech in USA”. A Soviet man says: “there’s freedom of speech in USSR, too. It’s just we don’t allow people to tell lies”.
I heard that Americans used laugh at this, now they don’t
There is an old POlish joke: Both in Poland and in USA we have freedom of speech. The difference is that in USA you have also freedom after speech.
Once upon a time. Now, not so much.
Was it when Debs was jailed or when Margareth Sanger spent 30 days in jail? Was it when Martin Luther King and other protestors were jailed? Maybe you were just happy with the people who used to be jailed assurances of freedom to be damned?
Debs was freed by Warren Harding, not someone generally thought of as a progressive hero. RE MLK, this is from Wikipedia entry for Letter From Birmingham Jail::”On April 10, Circuit Judge W. A. Jenkins Jr. issued a blanket injunction against ‘parading, demonstrating, boycotting, trespassing and picketing.’.” Note the similarity between the actions banned by the injunction and the charges (the real ones, not the fantasy ones) being levied against the Jan. 6 defendants.
I could have added a lot more, but I don’t want to test anyone’s patience.
Spencer, It is a sad reality of history that societies go crazy. How else would you describe Lysenkoism in the USSR? The Cultural Revolution in China? Wokeism in the USA?
Or, indeed, all religions (except mine of course).
Greg,
I loved your Covid interviews throughout the pandemic, especially at the beginning, and hope you would do another soon.
A bunch of my husband’s family just came down with it in North Florida in this current spike, and one just passed on the 4th; he was 57 and healthy. The ones still battling have come to Jesus.
Quote “Androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS) is when a person who is genetically male (who has one X and one Y chromosome) is resistant to male hormones (called androgens). As a result, the person has some of the physical traits of a woman, but the genetic makeup of a man.”
I saw a interview with one of these people. She looked and sounded like a woman. (But they’re infertile.)
I had never heard of this before.
That’s why you didn’t portray your two peaks as Dirac delta functions.
most non xy or xx are infertile. very low stats for other configurations . almost statistical chatter . they dont breed so they dont expand on their piece of the pie.
Right. I’d never heard of this androgen insensitivity syndrome until a few weeks ago.
According to wikipedia:
“XYY syndrome is a genetic condition in which a male has an extra Y chromosome.[1] There are usually few symptoms.[2] These may include being taller than average, acne, and an increased risk of learning problems.[1][2] The person is generally otherwise typical, including typical rates of fertility.[1]”
AIS (including CAIS) is no joke. Fortunately, it is also quite rare. The Wikipedia article on CAIS provides a good, high-level discussion of the topic.
IIRC there was an episode of House MD some years ago in which this proved to be the mystery syndrome driving the plot.
I found it interesting, when I read a textbook on this subject, some forty years ago, that androgen insensitive men often present physically as very attractive, curvaceous women with pleasant facial features. Several accompanying photographs supported the text’s assertion. The authors also mentioned that one very prominent Hollywood “sex goddess” was actually an androgen insensitive male, whose true nature was known only by her and her doctor..
“whose true nature was known only by her and her doctor”: what, was he/she chaste? Rather unusual for Hollywood I’d have guessed.
dearieme, some CAIS persons (XY males, but completely androgen insensitive) have normal sized vaginas (and can easily have sex). Some do not (and find sex very painful and difficult). See the Wikipedia page and other pages on the subject. Note that none are fertile.
That’s more than I want to know. Serves me right for being rude about Hollywood.
Here’s the interview with a person with CAIS.
I’ve heard that one androgen insensitivity woman did manage to give birth, but there was no checkable reference.
Can’t happen if XY.
What’s at the left & right corners past the peaks?
You could do a graph of gamete sizes. Then it would look more continuous… if you included multiple species.
There’s generally some overlap between the sexes. For instance, on intelligence, there is great overlap in the middle regions of the IQ chart between males and females, but all the really brilliant people (on the far right side) are men.
— Catxman
http://www.catxman.wordpress.com
Wider curve for males than females, my wife tells me there is a massive disproportion of boys in the special needs category at schools.
yes. very wide distribution on males , gives at the 15 and 85 percentile . brilliance and inventiveness at one end, the 85 and a large burden to society on the 15 end
That would make an epic t-shirt.
Not much of a cline!!
Yep, one must incline to decline the notion of a cline.
why so much kurtosis on these graphs?
Does X-axis have units of measure?
Thanks,
Nick
Some are disguised, The graph for “Shit coming out of their mouths” would look nearly identical at first, until one broke it down by type, at which point one would see dimorphism.
Sure, but are we thinking straight about the Basques? We asume that all those racially mixed/culturally horse ‘n’ cart groups spreading all over the place were linguistically IE, but couldn’t some have picked up an Older E. language? And isn’t Svante Paabo one sneaky …?
What exactly is being measured here? Just curious.
I assume the image is just for a laugh, to bond with the troops. (Happy to include myself) But if it is a graph of something, what is the x-axis?
This one gave me a laugh. Unrelated, but, any new thoughts or data pertaining to your hypotheses of Ashkenazi Jewish intelligence or exclusive homosexuality in males? Usually enjoy the discussions on those posts.
A more specific question: Do you think glycogen storage disease type 1a or spinal muscular atrophy could be added to the list of IQ-boosting disease mutations among the Ashkenazim? I’ve seen at least one study that found a higher mean IQ (and a higher verbal IQ in particular) in patients with SMA, and glycogen storage disease type 1a typically causes hyperuricemia (elevated uric acid) which may boost IQ; that is, if uric acid has the positive effect on intelligence other studies claim it may have…
Still no link. Based on anecdotal evidence (women around me), i call bullshit.
I do not see how this would go unnoticed, except if it was only for very high frequencies for exemple. You do not see women constantly asking men to lower tv sound. You see them contantly asking men to open jars.
Not exactly what you are looking for, but…
https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/statistics/noise-induced-hearing-loss-among-adults
Well for anecdotal evidence the mercury switch thermostat down the hall would wake my wife. Your logic that because they hear low intensity sounds they must be bothered by high intensity ones sooner seems faulty.
Here’s an anecdote: I have no idea whether there is a literature on this.
My wife has an excellent ability to pick out detail in a stationary view. “Do you see that herd of deer on the hillside? Aren’t they well camouflaged?” she will say. And I have to admit to not having seen them.
But if there’s some sport on the telly and someone produces a rapid piece of skill I will say “Did you see how he did that? Watch hise left foot which …”. But my wife will not have a clue about the detail: she has to wait for the slo-mo replay.
Now: do men have quicker eyes and women subtler eyes? Well they do in this house.
It’s probably true (visual parsing showing a speed advantage for men, an accuracy advantage for women (which may be related to better color discrimination) )… but I would surprised if the gap would be as dramatic as in the graph shown above, there should be a significant overlap….
Same remark about discerning small sound: I do not doubt there is a difference (my default opinion before any study is that there is a difference….because that what is most commonly found everytime you do such a measure). But to produce a gap with almost no measurable overlap (like in sex is a spectrum graph) , you must have such differences that it would be common knowledge among folks not blinded by political correctness. Physical strength is, at least on some aspects like grip strength (so the jar opening)…Color discrimination also is, less so but it is known, but not sure you could produce a bimodal graph with such a huge gap. Small sound? not aware of anything like that, so the bimodality should be weak, or what you measure should be much more specific than hearing threshold…
“ But if there’s some sport on the telly and someone produces a rapid piece of skill I will say “Did you see how he did that? Watch hise left foot which …”. But my wife will not have a clue about the detail: she has to wait for the slo-mo replay.”
If you are a sports enthusiast then you spend a lot of time paying close attention to things like foot positions. Your eyes are already trained to look at it. If you’re not really that interested then you won’t focus on the details. Even on the slo mo replay she’s probably just humoring you: “yes dear that is great, now let me get back to my flower arrangement.
It has emission lines.
Women have better sense perception in all the senses. Colorists (those who mix and match paint for design) are always women. The finer distinctions in color are not visible to men. I.e; deep navy blue may be mistaken for black, or very pale pastel yellow for very pale pastel orange.
In music, sound engineers use females to refine and distinguish recorded sound.
A mother can identify the smell of any member of the family from their laundry.
Pregnant women have an almost supernatural sensitivity to smells.
Touch, of course, is more refined in women due to more delicate skin.
Anectdotally, women do seem to be the ones to say, ” I taste thyme in this”, or ” they used margarine in these cookies, not butter, yuk”
Women have two copies of all genes. Only one is expressed. Evolution has the uncanny ability to distinguish between the and decide which one is better for survival. The developing female embryo will switch on the safest one, i.e., the one that has been around the longest.
The male will pass on the recent mutations, some of which will be good, like greater intelligence, and some, like retarded intelligence, will be worse.
That is why there is greater genetic variation, not only in intelligence, in men.
These aren’t non-overlapping distributions but John Archer lists the large psychological differences (using Cohen’s d) between men and women and points to their likely evolutionary origin (sexual selection based on differing reproductive strategies).
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/331903155_The_reality_and_evolutionary_significance_of_human_psychological_sex_differences
One obvious one that’s virtually non-overlapping – rape.
The very large sex differences from that paper: violent crime, homicide, violent video game usage, effortful control, fear in real world situations, pain tolerance, systemizing quotient scale, occupational interests, engineering interests, age difference (wrt mate choice), rape and partner homicide. Emotional vs. sexual jealousy (in relationships) shows as a large, almost very large difference.