Estrogen Linked to Research and Programming Skills 83
Neil Halelamien writes "Psychologists at the University of Bath have found that male researchers and programmers tend to have higher levels of estrogen, a hormone which promotes development of the right side of the brain (responsible for spatial and analytical skills). Increased estrogen was also linked to having longer index fingers and a decreased likelihood of having children. Men teaching mathematics and physics tended to have unusually long index fingers, while women in the social sciences tended to have more testosterone. The psychologists also found that male and female students with a smaller difference between their index and ring finger lengths tended to do better on their Java programming exams. The research leaves open the question of why women (who typically have more estrogen than men) aren't more prevalent in the science and technology fields."
Re:gender bias and programming (Score:3, Interesting)
I found that while she was very book smart, she lacked what I can only term IQ. I don't know what the proper term is. In a degree you can get high marks just from studying hard, and so she did.
My sample is too small though - I would be very interested in seeing any comparisons in reasoning, logic, and speed to pick up a new topic, and so on, between men and women, grouped by degree type.
Australian reports on reduced [female] fertility.. (Score:3, Interesting)
From the Eugenics department... (even one of
Australia's honored scientists - Mark Oliphant
is said to have held eugenic thoughts in later
life)
Today brought news of another -dark- Australian
tradition:
Giving would-be-TALL girls -estrogen-
to inhibit ("stunt") their growth!!!
(The tall-popey syndrome has been with us - in
many ways - for years over here, apparently...)
Anyway, the study (which only looked at females)
supports the conclusion that fertility is REDUCED
in later life.
"Victims" of early estrogen treatments have
been calling for BANNING of the same.
Now, has anyone done research on MALES...?
Anybody (in Oz or elsewhere) been given estrogen
to bring on earlier puberty, thereby stopping
their growth in stature, who's later had issues
when trying to procreate? (Men, I mean...)
(Aussies continue to strike me as REALLY ODD;
positioning their young women to be SHORT?!?)
Hard charging rock and rollers (Score:2, Interesting)
As with most sweeping generalities however, it is bollocks. My ring finger is significantly longer than my index finger, and yet I play guitar poorly, and conform more towards the usual "geek" stereotype than "rampant wild man of rock".
Spatial Orientation (Score:4, Interesting)
I believe the problem is spatial orientation [www.sfu.ca]. Certain people can create an accurate representation in their minds, and thus can easily "see" the changes happening. In the article I linked to, they give an example of rotating a complex shape in three-dimensional space. Obviously certain concepts in CS (data structures, for instance) involve making a mental picture to understand what's happening, since you can't exactly touch the data.
What I find interesting is how the theory mentioned in this article compares with this theory. According to the article above, only humans with very high or very low levels of testosterone enables humans to think spatially.
In the article I linked to (and many others), there is a theory that men traditionally developped this skill so that they could map out where lunch was, track it and hunt it down, and how they would need to get back home once they had killed it. This is compared to the women, who would stay near home and 'gather' small berries which required more of a sharp eye.
So my question is now, is did these early humans (which obviously must have needed good spatial abiliity) have high or low testosterone? And where are the high-testosterone guys that should be exceeding at spatial orientation now?