From: Karsten Bänder (kbaender@bigfoot.com)
Date: Mon Nov 23 1998 - 02:21:42 MST
> I can think of plenty of cases where gender does make a difference. But on many
> traits, the differences seem overrated. For example, height. Males are on average
> slightly taller than females. But if I were to tell you "You will shortly meet two
> people. One is a native Thai adult male, raised in Thailand. The other is a native
> Masai woman, raised in East Africa". You would lose money (on average) betting that the
> male will be taller. Other factors swamp the gender bias.
When using statistics, you can go only one way:analyse a small part of a group and apply the results to the whole group. You cannot guess from a group to an individual. So, racial differences cannot be judeged based on a one-on-one scheme. You can only take averages between large groups. This is no problem with physical attributes, which can be determined without problem. But any mentaltrstposes some problems. Many psychologial test systems are "localized", developped to be used only on specific groups with certain caracteristics. IMO there does not exist any objective method of determining intelligence or other mental capabilities.
You could guess from historic and ethnic development on the advantages and disadvantages of civilizations. You couls say that, based on tight population and less-than optimum living conditions, the European civilizations had to evolve, thus came technical and civilizational advance. China, as an opposite, resolved the internal wars and became a static society, because lack of threat caused a lack of evolution. As Biology teaches us, evolution is never without an external factor.
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kbaender@bigfoot.com
http://members.ivm.de/~Kasimodo/
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"Viele Leute glauben, daß sie denken, wenn sie lediglich ihre Vorurteile neu ordnen."
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