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RobertLumley comments on How can people be actually converted? - Less Wrong Discussion

5 Post author: yttrium 05 February 2012 10:13PM

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Comment author: lukeprog 06 February 2012 03:23:17AM 3 points [-]

Do you think the initial sex disparity on OB/LW was mostly due to those communities being sexist from the start, or a selection effect caused by the subject matter, or something else?

Comment author: RobertLumley 06 February 2012 05:04:50PM *  2 points [-]

One potential explanation I can think of: rationality is more likely to be interesting to men because it is largely perceived as a tool for winning arguments, and in the evolutionary environment, status was more useful to men than it was to women.

Edit: I am interested in other people's opinions on this claim, as it seems to me like it may be a just so story. But I still think I believe it.