Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin
Male Answer Syndrome (robertgenn.com)
14 points by rams on April 27, 2011 | hide | past | favorite | 7 comments


Interesting. Much of the "research" on this is armchair theorizing, the only paper I was able to find (easily) was this: https://segue.southwestern.edu/userfiles/PSY3320301-f06/male.... It states

"Perhaps most importantly, our results suggest that "Male Answer Syndrome" might be more appropriately referred to as "Masculine Answer Syndrome," as gender-role appears to be a stronger predictor of the behavior than does biological sex."

Many comments can be on the procedure followed on this paper. For example, the question they use, "Why is the sky blue", is scientific. It may be just that men (in general) are more interested in such scientific questions than women. They should have used either neutral questions, or some other female-biased ones. They should have calibrated scientific aptitude for their subjects.



It has often bothered me that many people will simply ignore you or pretend not to hear you when they don't know the answer to a question rather than say "I don't know."


Answering a question helps me to think about a problem, so I tend to prefix answers to questions I don't know the answer to with "I don't know, but.." and then I make an intelligent guess.


"Why Sap green?"

What the he'll does that even mean?


I would guess that since it is artists talking that she was asking why he chose "Sap green" for a particular portion of a piece of art he made as opposed to another color.


See also concept of "rapport talk" vs "report talk".

It's often crucial to understand which mode you and others are in.

Like in vim.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: