Comments on: Men trust people more than women do

By: Alam

Alam — Tue, 10 May 2011 04:13:36 +0000

“Anyone know what’s causing the spike around 1984?”

I dont know. But how about his:

Ronald Reagan defeats Walter F. Mondale with 59% of the popular vote, the highest since Richard Nixon’s 61% victory in 1972. Reagan carries 49 states in the electoral college;

By: Matt B.

Matt B. — Mon, 09 May 2011 22:50:37 +0000

Something’s weird with the time axis. Even though the marks are evenly spaced, the amount of time from one to the next varies.

As for the spike in 1984, my guess is comparison between reality and an SF novel.

By: David S.

David S. — Mon, 09 May 2011 21:48:41 +0000

Anyone know what’s causing the spike around 1984?

By: Razib Khan

Razib Khan — Mon, 09 May 2011 20:40:08 +0000

What happens if you include the “it depends” answer? Some graphs show very little difference between males and females and I was wondering if the “it depends” option would make the difference disappear at least for some of the variables you looked at.

it seemed a wash. i was going to do a “mean value” by converting the proportions to weights with each response being a categorical. this seemed more intuitive.

By: Adriana

Adriana — Mon, 09 May 2011 20:16:47 +0000

I’m not sure I’m reading these graphs correctly. Is the Y axis % that answered “can trust people”?

One graph that stuck out for me is the “liberals” category; in the 2000s it seems that liberal men and liberal women levels of trust are the same. Also, there is a little spike after Obama’s election.

By: Razib Khan

Razib Khan — Mon, 09 May 2011 20:00:08 +0000

After all, men spontaneously form all sort of teams to achieve some common goal. This is probably a result of the foraging life-style where teams increased hunting efficiency but gathering did not require teams.

yeah, i wonder that. men have lower social intelligence too.

By: AG

AG — Mon, 09 May 2011 19:45:03 +0000

Majority of scam victims are females based on my impression. So they are reactive to their experience?

Certainly con artists like to target women. Any thing to do with some aspect of intelligence?

Gender aside, con artists certainly like to pull trick on people they feel easy or stupid.

Maybe smartness is best deterrence to scam.

By: ohwilleke

ohwilleke — Mon, 09 May 2011 18:40:25 +0000

Interesting that women have more education on average, and that educated people are on average more trusting, yet men are more trusting than women. Controlling for education, the gender effect on trust should be a bit strong than it appears.

By: adam

adam — Mon, 09 May 2011 16:13:27 +0000

Sorry for the irrelevant derail, but is anyone else having problems with gnxp intermittently loading a fake ‘your computer has a virus’ page? For the last couple of posts, when I visit from my rss feed the whole page becomes a ‘virus’ page about 25% of the time. That’s only happening for me for this blog. Maybe get someone to check that out?

[they're looking at it -Razib]

[#2 will fix in one hour. problem with ad service -Razib]

[#3 it is fixed -Razib]

By: Ian

Ian — Mon, 09 May 2011 16:01:13 +0000

Risk assessment? People (mugger, rapists, carjackers, violent ex-boyfriends) are generally perceived as being more likely to attack women than men. (True or not, that’s how popular culture portrays it.) So it strikes me as unsurprising, though of course, it’s definitely interesting to see data.

By: glenn

glenn — Mon, 09 May 2011 15:46:53 +0000

Maybe it’s too early Monday morning for me to remember the obvious, but could someone tell me what happened in 1983 & 1984?

By: marcel

marcel — Mon, 09 May 2011 15:14:07 +0000

I understood the headline of the post on first read not as “Men trust people more than women [do]” but as “Men trust people more than [than they do] women”.

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 09 May 2011 14:21:04 +0000

Women get their trust abused more than men, learning not to trust so much.

In social situations, men’s lies to women are more numerous and significant than women’s lies to men or men’s lies to men. E.g., “Are you married?” This is the result of a biological imperative that motivate men to lie.

By: Charles Nydorf

Charles Nydorf — Mon, 09 May 2011 12:24:26 +0000

Its possible that the effect comes from intelligent women bringing an outsider’s perspective to established institutions. Women, for example, are prominent among the people who sensed something wrong with the pre2008 real estate market.

By: bob sykes

bob sykes — Mon, 09 May 2011 11:37:46 +0000

This result might be expected. After all, men spontaneously form all sort of teams to achieve some common goal. This is probably a result of the foraging life-style where teams increased hunting efficiency but gathering did not require teams.