
Picture yourself as a stereotypical male - karenxcheng
http://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/picture-yourself-as-a-stereotypical-male
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karenxcheng
From the article: "As it turns out, there is zero statistically significant
gender difference in mental rotation ability after test-takers are asked to
imagine themselves as stereotypical men for a few minutes. None. An entire
standard deviation of female underperformance is negated on this condition."

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hugh4
That's really surprising, if it's true.

I'd like to see this one replicated before I start believing it.

I wonder whether it could be useful for other things. If I want to be a better
public speaker or tennis player, can I spend five minutes visualising myself
as a better public speaker or tennis player? (I wouldn't be surprised if the
answer is yes for the first since public speaking is so confidence-dependent,
but what about the latter?)

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onion2k
_That 's really surprising, if it's true._

It's surprising that years of conditioning to perform worse at spatial
reasoning can be mitigated by reading a couple of paragraphs, but that's all.
People having an equal ability at a mental function regardless of their sex is
not even remotely surprising.

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roguecoder
This is particularly fascinating to think about in the context of all the
companies proclaiming they hire "smart" engineers.

