Singapore's greatest asset is a relatively educated workforce. In the 80s Lee Kuan Yew implemented selectively pronatalist (aka eugenic) policies , like priority daycare, romantic getaways for educated singles and money for sterilization, to try to increase the number of children born to educated women. These were targeted at the better educated Chinese majority. They were both unpopular and ineffective- failing to bring Chinese birthrates up or the age of marriage for Chinese women down.
A couple of posters from Singapore's pronatalist era- 1986
Posters encouraging Singaporeans to marry later and have two children- the second poster is from the 70s, before the pronatalist era
A @sciam article concluded that women have an "endurance activity advantage" and that, therefore, women are as adapted for hunting as men. The piece didn't make a strong case & authors Ocobock and Lacy were pilloried.
Did they respond to criticism in a later online seminar about the pushback they got on their paper? Not really- 1/4
They responded dishonestly to this tweet saying that there was no "evidence for women doing high-risk cooperative big-game hunting in any hunter-gatherer society"
Ocobock countered this by saying there was "no evidence" of "only males" doing big game hunting among Neanderthals (not extant hunter gatherers) or "anatomically modern humans"- pushing the burden of evidence back, rather than tackling the claim directly 2/4
Some of this comes down to rhetoric-easily defended position that O + L make is that women hunted too- harder to defend position is that labor of hunting was not unequal. Hunting is a primarily masculine activity. 3/4
Sex differences are a central theme in the culture wars- endorsing evolved sex differences, or even a sex binary can get you in trouble. That's why #TheBigConversation - a conference bringing together some of the most prominent voices on either side of the debate was such a rare event- I wrote about it for @RealLastStand
Here are some of the highlights of the article
🧵 1/20
The conference consisted of 16 talks and 5 discussion sections- see a recording of the whole conference at the link below.
Some of the attendees were Cordelia Fine @hoovlet @DaphnaJoel @ginarippon1 @PsychoSchmitt David Geary @ProfDavidBuss @CostelloWilliam @TaniaArline Marco del Guidice @sbkaufman David Puts @Lise_Eliot and Maryanne Fisher 2/20
A central questions in sex difference research concerns the origins of differences between men and women. Are these differences primarily the result of socialization, culture, and stereotype effects, or are these differences largely innate or biological? 3/20
This weekend I'll be posting from the #thebigconversation an event with opposing voices on sex differences like @Lise_Eliot @PsychoSchmitt @hoovlet @TaniaArline @ginarippon1 @SwipeWright @CostelloWilliam @DaphnaJoel @ml_fisher @sbkaufman & David Geary! santafeboys.org/why-the-big-co…
#thebigconversation on sex and gender differences is going to be livestreamed- you can attend for free at this link form.jotform.com/232276404966159
Women on internet forums are constantly encouraging one another to escalate small or nonexistent misdeeds into existential relationship threats. It's incredibly toxic- a few examples:
Woman- my husband hasn't initiated sex since I got pregnant and it's making me feel self conscious. During an argument I said "do you think of me as an incubator?" he said "well, you kinda are an incubator" I didn't talk to him for 2 days.
Replies: You go girl!
Woman- my husband had the day off so he asked if I could list some things for him to do that would be most helpful. I told him he was a adult and he should know what to do. He walked off dejectedly.
EVERY reply: yes! exactly right! He is asking you for too much mental labor.
I polled men on Twitter about if they would prefer to be slapped or to get silent treatment, get yelled at, have a long discussion or go to couple's counseling. A thread about punishment, silent treatment and romantic manipulation 🧵
Do people often manipulate each other in relationships including punishment? You might think it's dysfunctional, unhealthy, or even abusive but you can't say that interpersonal manipulation isn't common. Psychologists have been thinking about this for decades.
"Silent treatment" is a very common tactic of manipulation- present in most relationships. Some evidence that social ostracism, like silent treatment, actually shows similar physiological response as physical pain.
Summary of polls I ran asking people to take perspective of person dying & asking how much grief they'd hope their partner would experience, how long they would want their partner to wait after they died to date again and whether they would help their partner find someone new 🧵
How much grief would you hope your partner would experience after you die?
21% of people wanted their partner to experience "no grief". Some people in the comments said they wanted their partner to experience intense grief for a short time.
How long would you want your partner to wait after you died to date again?
Majority of people wanted their partner to wait 6months - 1 year. Almost 1/3 said "as little time as possible" and 6.5% wanted their partner to wait forever and never date again.