"I couldn't possibly fail to disagree with you less."
12 December 2006He prayed, she prayedIf there's a religious gender gap, what's behind it? Bryan Caplan takes a stab at it:
1. Men and women have different cognitive orientations — a difference that is in large part genetic. As the Myers-Briggs personality test powerfully confirms, men are more Thinking, and women are more Feeling. (Or if you prefer the Five Factor Model, men are less Agreeable).
On a deep level, then, men are more inclined to want some hard proof that religious claims are true, while women are more willing to take religious teachings on faith because they sound nice. Burn me at the stake if you must, but it's true. 2. As the great Timur Kuran persuasively argues, social pressure leads to "preference falsification." If other people hassle you for lacking piety — as they do in traditional societies — people will pretend to be pious even if they aren't. The weaker the social pressure, the more sincere people become. In traditional societies, then, men keep their irreligion to themselves and pretend to be as religious as women. (As Kuran emphasizes, preference falsification also inhibits communication, so men who would be open to irreligious arguments are less likely to ever hear and adopt them). As traditional mores break down, however, men feel freer to be themselves — and share their doubts with others. In contrast, since their piety was relatively sincere from the start, women don't respond much to the fall in social pressure. I'm not inclined to go hunt down a stake and a bag of Kingsford just yet, but something about this seems a little disquieting, despite the distant echo of the ring of truth. (Via Michael Katsimbris.) Posted at 6:29 AM to Immaterial WitnessGenerally speaking, I would say the most potent source of "preference falsification" in any man's life is His Woman™. She wants to be the only one, and he tells her she is. Thereafter, he is lost. Posted by: McGehee at 9:08 AM on 12 December 2006“Abandon all hope, ye who enter here” (loose translation from the Renaissance Italian of Dante) Yes ... to become lost is to enter into the Inferno. But it's siren song is so very strong. Posted by: Ron at 9:36 AM on 13 December 2006This sounds too much like the (by now old) canard about traditional societies being inherently less sincere than societies that "break down," as well as the once-trendy idea that societal breakdown is a great time for truth-telling and being "yourself," rather than ass-covering and staying out of the way of roving "new idea" fanatics, anarchic gangs, and the like. People can lie just as much when new ideas come to replace the old, to remain fashionable at the very least. But you guys keep telling yourself that you're the logical, proof and truth demanding ones, as opposed to the content, pretty-lie-preferring cowlike women. Posted by: Andrea Harris at 10:08 AM on 13 December 2006Don't look at me. Were it not for beautiful delusions, I'd have no reason to get up in the morning. :) |