Friday, April 19, 2013
Brain Size
Last class was extremely interesting to me during the discussion of brain size. Apparently, size does not matter, to finally answer that question. I guess the most important part of that discussion to me was how simple it was to explain why women's brains are smaller, and how easily it could be mentioned. I feel like if everyone knew that it was because of biological and chemical reason during pregnancy, everyone would understand. I guess what I'm hinting at is that, we never really do figure out why certain facts are true. Whenever I hear an interesting fact, I just remember what I heard, and never look into it. It's kind of a reflection on what today's like. People will hear information, but never truly look into it, unless it applies directly to themselves. Either way, that was interesting to me, and I really enjoyed the rest of the discussion from last class.
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This is a really good point, and something we're all guilty of. We tend to hear something that sounds legitimate, especially when it's considered "science" and we don't usually look into on our own. This was the major problem with the studies involving men and women's brains. Many of these studies were flawed and biased to begin with, yet we don't know this and just accept it as fact. These studies have been debunked since then, but some people still just believe what they were originally taught. If we all stopped to take a look at these "facts" from time to time, I'm sure many of us would stand corrected and there would be a lot less stereotyping and assuming about things that we think we know.
ReplyDeleteIt also doesn't help when information like this is spread to people that don't have a proper understanding for the reasons for the situation. Just this weekend while scrolling through Twitter, one of those popular, yet frequently inaccurate, "random fact accounts" tweeted that "male brains are 10% larger than female brains." That statement out of context alone is just bothersome. It doesn't offer reasoning for it, places the statement in a medium that allows for easy transmittal of information to many, and implies a stereotype that is misconceived by the general public.
ReplyDeleteWe spent all of this time in class discussing reasons as to why that statement may be true and many try to offer scientific proof. I just find it so hard to believe logic has escaped so many. Could the reason that mens' brains are larger than womens' is that men are on average just physically larger than women? Maybe I'm over-simplifying a complex issue, but regardless, the idea that brain size reflects brain capacity has been disproved many times before, yet we still care about size as evidenced by the Twitter posting.
I agree that we often automatically believe something we here especially if it has a scientific background or is scientifically proven. But even though it has been scientifically proven those who were originally taught different have a biased opinion. I think it also often occurs that when people believe strongly about something and are taught that it is correct they are most likely not to change their mind.
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