Taking Sex Differences in Personality Seriously
New approaches are shedding light on the magnitude of sex differences in personality, and the results are so strong and pervasive that they can no longer be ignored By Scott Barry Kaufman on December 12, 2019 Few topics in psychology are more controversial than sex differences [1]. Debates can be classified into two main types : (a) The description of sex differences , including both the size and variability of sex differences across a multitude of physical and psychological traits, and (b) The origins and development of sex differences , including the complex interplay between social, cultural, genetic, and biological factors that influence sex differences. These lines often get blurred. Researchers who emphasize sociocultural factors in their research tend to conceptualize sex differences as small and worry that if we exaggerate the differences, then all hell will break loose in society. On the other side, those who emphasize biological influences tend to emp