Freethought & Rationalism Archive

Totalitarianist · 02-09-2003, 12:39 AM

Men, Women and Sex Differences: The Attitudes of Three Feminists � Gloria Steinem, Gloria Allred and Bella Abzug. Quite interesting.

From the article:

Quote:

This paper is a case study of how three prominent feminists responded to the cognitive dissonance induced by ideas about sex differences. Festinger (1957) developed a theory of cognitive dissonance. He says that when we have two ideas that we see as inconsistent with one another we develop a state of cognitive dissonance, which we find unpleasant. We thus try to achieve consonance. But, the consonance is often achieved by rationalizing away one of the threatening ideas. For example, the idea that (1) I smoke, and (2) smoking is dangerous, should produce cognitive dissonance. Most people in this situation would rationalize away so that they could continue to smoke, now no longer seeing smoking as dangerous, despite evidence on the dangers of smoking. For the three feminists, the cognitive dissonance would occur between the ideas that (1) they think males and females are the same (and thus there should be no discrimination against females) and (2) research shows sex differences between males and females. From Festinger's work, we can predict that the tendency will be not to alter their political, ideological beliefs (belief 1), but to rationalize away the findings (idea number 2), just as smokers continue to smoke and rationalize away evidence on the dangers of smoking.

nogods4me · 02-10-2003, 06:54 AM

[deleted insult]

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Please focus on the idea and not the individual.**

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tk · 02-11-2003, 09:17 PM

Clearly though, the phenomenon of rationalizing away cognitive dissonance isn't specific to feminism. It crops up whenever someone believes strongly in something. I guess this is one area where women aren't so different from men after all.

tronvillain · 02-11-2003, 10:04 PM

Yes, quite an interesting article. What a surprise! *chuckle* Thanks for the link.

Dr Rick · 02-11-2003, 10:17 PM

...Also from the article:

Quote:

A case study of how three prominent feminists responded to evidence of sex differences is presented. Interesting research on sex differences is discussed, including brain differences. Much of it is from the ABC-TV program "Boys and Girls Are Different" hosted by John Stossel...all quotes are from the transcript of the program, which I purchased from Journal Graphic...The three feminists came across badly on the television program...Steinem came across as a rigid person ..Abzug seemed like a pleasant person, but one totally ignorant of research...

This was not a scholarly work; the author drew much of his information and his opinions of Steinem and Abzug from a televison show. Based in part upon what he watched, he concluded that these women must have cognitive dissonance, though the televison program apparently broadcasted no such opinion.

Rick

ps418 · 02-12-2003, 04:03 PM

On the topic of sex differences, I'd recommend Doreen Kimura's little book: Sex and cognition , published by MIT Press. Her homepage has some of her papers available for free.

Patrick

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02-10-2003, 06:54 AM	#2
nogods4me Contributor Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Baltimore, MD USA Posts: 17,432	[deleted insult] This is a general comment - no direct indults will be tolerated. Posts containing insults will be removed. Please focus on the idea and not the individual. - Wyz_sub10

02-11-2003, 09:17 PM	#3
tk Regular Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Singapore Posts: 158	Clearly though, the phenomenon of rationalizing away cognitive dissonance isn't specific to feminism. It crops up whenever someone believes strongly in something. I guess this is one area where women aren't so different from men after all.

02-11-2003, 10:04 PM	#4
tronvillain Veteran Member Join Date: Oct 2000 Location: Alberta, Canada Posts: 5,658	Yes, quite an interesting article. What a surprise! chuckle Thanks for the link.

02-12-2003, 04:03 PM	#6
ps418 Veteran Member Join Date: Mar 2001 Location: Louisville, KY, USA Posts: 1,840	On the topic of sex differences, I'd recommend Doreen Kimura's little book: Sex and cognition , published by MIT Press. Her homepage has some of her papers available for free. Patrick

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