EeneyMinnieMoe
Philosopher
- Joined
- Feb 11, 2007
- Messages
- 7,221
I have a question for everyone who is interested in these things.
I'm intrigued by something Michael Shermer wrote (I believe it's from his book Why People Believe Weird Things but I didn't check):
http://skeptically.org/logicalthreads/id15.html
Gender and Belief.
In many ways the orthogonal relationship of intelligence and beliefs is not unlike that of gender and beliefs. With the surge of popularity of psychic mediums like John Edward, James Van Praagh, and Sylvia Browne, it has become obvious to observers, particularly among journalists assigned to cover them, that at any given gathering (usually at large hotel conference rooms holding several hundred people, each of whom paid several hundred dollars to be there), that the vast majority (at least 75%) are women. Understandably, journalists inquire whether women, therefore, are more superstitious or less rational than men, who typically disdain such mediums and scoff at the notion of talking to the dead. Indeed, a number of studies have found that women hold more superstitious beliefs and accept more paranormal phenomena as real than men. In one study of 132 men and women in New York City, for example, scientists found that more women than men believed in knocking on wood or that walking under a ladder brought bad luck. 13 Another study showed that more college women than men professed belief in precognition. 14
Although the general conclusion from such studies seems compelling, it is wrong. The problem here is with limited sampling. If you attend any meeting of creationists, Holocaust “revisionists,” or UFOlogists, for instance, you will find almost no women at all (the few that I see at such conferences are the spouses of attending members and, for the most part, they look bored out of their skulls). For a variety of reasons related to the subject matter and style of reasoning, creationism, revisionism, and UFOlogy are guy beliefs. So, while gender is related to the target of one’s beliefs, it appears to be unrelated to the process of believing. In fact, in the same study that found more women than men believed in precognition, it turns out that more men than women believe in Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster. 15 Seeing into the future is a woman’s thing, tracking down chimerical monsters is a man’s thing. There are no differences between men and women in the power of belief, only in what they choose to believe.
Allthough I'd like to believe and I do believe that men and women are intellectually equal and very much the same, this struck me as very true, and I'd add conspiracy theorists (enspecially 9/11 "truthers") to the list.
Whenever I see some nutjob or nutjobs with signs and bullhorns, handing out leaflets and screaming about how Bush orchestrated 9/11 in Washington Square Park or Union Square or disturbing events like the Halloween parade, you can bet that they are all guys.
Sure, I've had obnoxious-way-too-liberal-hippie-chick types tell me the same nonsense. Sure, Erica Jong and Rosie have said the same thing Charlie Sheen and Richard Belzer have. Sure, some of the twoofers posting videos and making DVDs and ranting on Z-list radio shows are women. Yes, my mom used to think that LBJ shot JFK.
But the vast majority are guys. As a matter of fact, it took me some effort to even think of any female conspiracy nuts. They are all mainly gentile, white and straight men, too- allthough I've heard some of the same crap from minority and gay men. What gives?
This is even more perplexing given that politically women are generally more likely to be liberal than men are (not that I haven't heard of ring-wing conspiracy weirdos).
Certainly they are more somewhat more likely to vote Democratic. I'd definitely imagine more men than women, say, voted for George Bush in 2000 and 2004- so why the disparity in the 9/11 nuttery, even among the "Green Party liberal" crowd?
Same thing with Holocaust revisionists and "the Jews did 9/11" or "the Jew conspiracy to take over the world" people. Look at them - they are all guys.
Off the top of my head, I can't even think of any women in the public eye who advocate that garbage. Off the top of my head, I can barely think of any women I've personally known or have met who advocate that.
Which is very surprising, given that racism and the hatred of Jews have no gender. I have known or met as many female Jew-haters as I have male- but for some reason, all of the professionals and hobbyists of it, from Nazis, to neo-Nazis, to Muslim fanatics, to KKK members to Holocaust revisionists to world domination conspiracy nuts, are men.
Now, I have heard the vilest, most despicable garbage about Jews, blacks, Hispanics, Arabs, Muslims, Asians and gays come out of the mouths of women- housewives, mothers, teenage girls. It's an evenly split demographic, gender-wise. Women aren't inherently more accepting, open-minded or more loving than men when it comes to people of other ethnicities, religions, orientation or races- so why are almost all people who make prejudice a hobby men?
One explanation that occurs to me is that groups like the KKK, the Nazis, neo-Nazis and Muslim fundamentalists aren't exactly known for female leadership. Still, it baffles me that even among racists, this kind of nuttery is only popular among guys.
Now, I love men and so I'm interested in how their minds work. They usually aren't that hard to figure out or understand but in this nonsense, they are a mystery to me.
And the creationists- I'd think that as many women as men would advocate ID and other creation science. After all, women are more likely to be religious than men are. Certainly there are as many female theists as male ones. And the opposite is true- men are more likely to be atheists/ agnostics/ secularists/ skeptics than women.
Yes, most pastors, priests, activists, legislators, etc. are men. Again, the pros are guys. Taking it further, the vast majority religious and political fanatics and religious terrorists are almost all men. The occasional female suicide bomber and the political and media performance artist known as Ann Coulter being an exception.
After thinking about it though, I realize that Shermer is correct- all creationists are men. How many female creationists can you think of? Coulter? Kirk Cameron's wife? Kent Hovind's wife?
Have I ever met female creationists? I've met religious women who don't accept evolution, yes, but no one involved enough to want to read books about it, go to conventions, protest, etc.
I wonder why. Any theories?
However, I can instantly see why UFO crazies and Bigfoot hunters are, in the majority, men- aliens and creatures just aren't sexy or cool or interesting to most women. They just aren't.
Women just don't gravitate towards that stuff, even if we are science fiction fans or fantasy buffs, interested in animals or we dream of travels and adventure.
I'm intrigued by something Michael Shermer wrote (I believe it's from his book Why People Believe Weird Things but I didn't check):
http://skeptically.org/logicalthreads/id15.html
Gender and Belief.
In many ways the orthogonal relationship of intelligence and beliefs is not unlike that of gender and beliefs. With the surge of popularity of psychic mediums like John Edward, James Van Praagh, and Sylvia Browne, it has become obvious to observers, particularly among journalists assigned to cover them, that at any given gathering (usually at large hotel conference rooms holding several hundred people, each of whom paid several hundred dollars to be there), that the vast majority (at least 75%) are women. Understandably, journalists inquire whether women, therefore, are more superstitious or less rational than men, who typically disdain such mediums and scoff at the notion of talking to the dead. Indeed, a number of studies have found that women hold more superstitious beliefs and accept more paranormal phenomena as real than men. In one study of 132 men and women in New York City, for example, scientists found that more women than men believed in knocking on wood or that walking under a ladder brought bad luck. 13 Another study showed that more college women than men professed belief in precognition. 14
Although the general conclusion from such studies seems compelling, it is wrong. The problem here is with limited sampling. If you attend any meeting of creationists, Holocaust “revisionists,” or UFOlogists, for instance, you will find almost no women at all (the few that I see at such conferences are the spouses of attending members and, for the most part, they look bored out of their skulls). For a variety of reasons related to the subject matter and style of reasoning, creationism, revisionism, and UFOlogy are guy beliefs. So, while gender is related to the target of one’s beliefs, it appears to be unrelated to the process of believing. In fact, in the same study that found more women than men believed in precognition, it turns out that more men than women believe in Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster. 15 Seeing into the future is a woman’s thing, tracking down chimerical monsters is a man’s thing. There are no differences between men and women in the power of belief, only in what they choose to believe.
Allthough I'd like to believe and I do believe that men and women are intellectually equal and very much the same, this struck me as very true, and I'd add conspiracy theorists (enspecially 9/11 "truthers") to the list.
Whenever I see some nutjob or nutjobs with signs and bullhorns, handing out leaflets and screaming about how Bush orchestrated 9/11 in Washington Square Park or Union Square or disturbing events like the Halloween parade, you can bet that they are all guys.
Sure, I've had obnoxious-way-too-liberal-hippie-chick types tell me the same nonsense. Sure, Erica Jong and Rosie have said the same thing Charlie Sheen and Richard Belzer have. Sure, some of the twoofers posting videos and making DVDs and ranting on Z-list radio shows are women. Yes, my mom used to think that LBJ shot JFK.
But the vast majority are guys. As a matter of fact, it took me some effort to even think of any female conspiracy nuts. They are all mainly gentile, white and straight men, too- allthough I've heard some of the same crap from minority and gay men. What gives?
This is even more perplexing given that politically women are generally more likely to be liberal than men are (not that I haven't heard of ring-wing conspiracy weirdos).
Certainly they are more somewhat more likely to vote Democratic. I'd definitely imagine more men than women, say, voted for George Bush in 2000 and 2004- so why the disparity in the 9/11 nuttery, even among the "Green Party liberal" crowd?
Same thing with Holocaust revisionists and "the Jews did 9/11" or "the Jew conspiracy to take over the world" people. Look at them - they are all guys.
Off the top of my head, I can't even think of any women in the public eye who advocate that garbage. Off the top of my head, I can barely think of any women I've personally known or have met who advocate that.
Which is very surprising, given that racism and the hatred of Jews have no gender. I have known or met as many female Jew-haters as I have male- but for some reason, all of the professionals and hobbyists of it, from Nazis, to neo-Nazis, to Muslim fanatics, to KKK members to Holocaust revisionists to world domination conspiracy nuts, are men.
Now, I have heard the vilest, most despicable garbage about Jews, blacks, Hispanics, Arabs, Muslims, Asians and gays come out of the mouths of women- housewives, mothers, teenage girls. It's an evenly split demographic, gender-wise. Women aren't inherently more accepting, open-minded or more loving than men when it comes to people of other ethnicities, religions, orientation or races- so why are almost all people who make prejudice a hobby men?
One explanation that occurs to me is that groups like the KKK, the Nazis, neo-Nazis and Muslim fundamentalists aren't exactly known for female leadership. Still, it baffles me that even among racists, this kind of nuttery is only popular among guys.
Now, I love men and so I'm interested in how their minds work. They usually aren't that hard to figure out or understand but in this nonsense, they are a mystery to me.
And the creationists- I'd think that as many women as men would advocate ID and other creation science. After all, women are more likely to be religious than men are. Certainly there are as many female theists as male ones. And the opposite is true- men are more likely to be atheists/ agnostics/ secularists/ skeptics than women.
Yes, most pastors, priests, activists, legislators, etc. are men. Again, the pros are guys. Taking it further, the vast majority religious and political fanatics and religious terrorists are almost all men. The occasional female suicide bomber and the political and media performance artist known as Ann Coulter being an exception.
After thinking about it though, I realize that Shermer is correct- all creationists are men. How many female creationists can you think of? Coulter? Kirk Cameron's wife? Kent Hovind's wife?
Have I ever met female creationists? I've met religious women who don't accept evolution, yes, but no one involved enough to want to read books about it, go to conventions, protest, etc.
I wonder why. Any theories?
However, I can instantly see why UFO crazies and Bigfoot hunters are, in the majority, men- aliens and creatures just aren't sexy or cool or interesting to most women. They just aren't.
Women just don't gravitate towards that stuff, even if we are science fiction fans or fantasy buffs, interested in animals or we dream of travels and adventure.
Last edited:
If, based on anecdotal evidence, most Neo-Nazis, violent militants, pseudoscientists, twoofers and Big Foot hunters were men, why would that be?
. I've always loved a good debate and a good fight but then, I've always been a tomboy 
