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Biological Essentialism, Gender, True Belief, Confirmation Biases, and Skepticism

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Biological Essentialism, Gender, True Belief, Confirmation Biases, and Skepticism C HAPTER 8 BIOLOGICAL ESSENTIALISM, GENDER, TRUE BELIEF, CONFIRMATION BIASES, AND SKEPTICISM Patricia Adair Gowaty In this chapter, I describe a damning case study dem- of some sex differences research.ASSOCIATION Furthermore, I onstrating that true beliefs—a type of common self- suspect that typical gender schemas have obscured deception promoting theory tenacity (Loehle, 1987) the visionary works of skeptics in anthropology and and commitment to essential sex differences—have evolutionary biology (Anderson, 1974; Hrdy, 1981, hijacked the scientific study of the evolutionary 1990, 1999, 2006; Parish, 1994; Parish, de Waal, & origins of sex differences and similarities. Theory Haig, 2000) about female enthusiasm for mating tenacity is the “persistent belief in a theory despite and multiple mating. In addition, the implications contrary evidence” (Loehle, 1987, p. 397), and of female multiple mating are often overlooked essentialism is the idea of fundamental, intrinsic, and the imperative is ignored to study a range of necessary, determinative differences between enti- potentialPSYCHOLOGICAL fitness benefits, not just costs, for females ties, such as females and males. Essentialism is a who mate multiply. Furthermore, it is clear from prominent and usually unconsciously held concep- hindsight that something has inhibited the advance tual frame (i.e., a perception bias) for evolutionary and recognition of alternative hypotheses about the biologists studying the origins of sex differences. origins and extent of sex differences and similarities It is a philosophical trap closing off attentionAMERICAN to in behavior, such as in choosy or indiscriminate alternative hypotheses and experimental© designs reproductive decision making. As I explain in sub- that could be used to reject false hypotheses. Here, sequent sections, many investigators assume choosy I describe observations suggesting that the belief in or indiscriminate reproduction is the key sex dif- a theory despite contrary evidence (Loehle, 1987) ference fueling sex-differentiated opportunities for is strongly associated withPROOFS intuitive gender schemas fitness and selection. and gendered conceptual frames (see Chapter 7, this To some readers, many of my points will seem volume). I argue that intuitive gender schemas have like old news (Gowaty, 2003; Schiebinger, 1991, fueled theory tenacity and inhibited the healthy 1993, 2001). Also, I most certainly am not arguing development of habitual skepticism, thus retarding from the perspective that there is anything novel progress in the evolutionary study of sex differences about bias in science or that scientists are immune and similarities. from bias. Far from it: I consider the ongoing, ever- I suspect that typical gender schemas, consistent developing—albeit slowly—practice of science to be UNCORRECTEDwith the double standard in human behavioral, bias busting (Hilborn & Mangel, 1997; Platt, 1964; social, and sexual norms, may also promote the use Popper, 1945). Some will consider my arguments of confirmatory designs in the empirical practice narrow, but other practicing scientists will find my I thank the editors for inviting me to contribute to this handbook and asking me to write this chapter. Adriana Maldonado Chaparro, Justin Garcia, Root Gorelick, Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, Stephen P. Hubbell, Zuleyma Tang Martinez, Pablo Marquet, James Moore, Yi Zhai (a recent postgraduate from Peking University), Matthew Gillum (an undergraduate at the University of California, Los Angeles), Cheryl Travis, Jackie White, and Alexandra Rutherford each read a previous draft and made useful suggestions, for which I am extremely grateful. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/XXXXXXXX-008 APA Handbook of the Psychology of Women: Vol. 1. History, Theory, and Battlegrounds, C. B. Travis and J. W. White (Editors-in-Chief ) 145 Copyright © 2018 by the American Psychological Association. All rights reserved. BK-APA-HPW_V1-170074-Chp08.indd 145 25/03/17 4:05 PM Patricia Adair Gowaty concerns thoroughly contemporary, not too foreign still-influential texts of the classical theory. At the from recent scientific discussions of critical practice same time, I consider the types of logic on which in social psychology and ecology (Aarts et al., 2015; the classical claims rest in an effort to identify why Brandt et al., 2014; Chin, 2014; Hesselmann & it has taken so long for data inconsistent with the Moors, 2015; Klein et al., 2014; López-López, canonical predictions to be acknowledged as incon- 2014; Makel, 2014; Marquet et al., 2014; Miguel sistent or for testable alternative hypotheses for the et al., 2014; Murayama, Pekrun, & Fiedler, 2014; evolutionary and developmental origins of sex dif- Nakagawa & Parker, 2015; Wicherts & Bakker, ferences and sex similarities to gain traction and be 2014). Moreover, I hasten to emphasize that my tested. Last, I speculate on whether evolutionary goal here is not a thorough critique of evolutionary- studies of sex differences are peculiarly subject to based sex differences research. I am attempting bias or whether the collective failure to understand only to make a singular point providing evidence the elementary but substantial errors in Bateman’s that many evolutionary scientists saw not what was study is really just normal science (Kuhn, 1962). on the page but rather what they believed. What is ASSOCIATION novel in my studies of Bateman’s work (Gowaty, CORNERSTONES OF THE CANONICAL Kim, & Anderson, 2012, 2013; Snyder & Gowaty, THEORY OF SEX DIFFERENCES 2007), and what I emphasize here, is the evidence demonstrating that the errors of inference and Adaptive scenarios for the evolution of sex differ- method in a foundational study were easy to spot ences are often attempts to explain why males are and elementary, demanding only a familiarity with aggressive, sexually profligate, and indiscriminate simple manipulations of fractions and modest appre- in mating behavior, whereas females are dependent, ciation of the syllogisms (Dennett, 1995; Gowaty, coy, and choosy. These conceptual notions of sex 2014) of Darwinian selection (Darwin, 1871). differencesPSYCHOLOGICAL are where many biologists, evolutionary In response to critics who say I do not go far psychologists, behavioral ecologists, and sociobi- enough, I emphasize that my appeal is not to those ologists begin to cast further hypotheses about sex already aware of the power of gender biases to affect differences, whether or not these ideas capture the the practice of science. Rather, I hope to capture range of variation in the sexes (Hyde, 2005; Martin, the interest of and inspire skepticism among those 1991). To my eyes, most evolutionary hypotheses who have retained confidence in the canon AMERICANof the about sex differences flow from arguments with the evolutionary origins of sex differences. The© evidence form “sex differences predict sex differences.” implies that true believers suffer in the glare of their The usual justificatory thread begins with beliefs, which obscures vision just as profoundly as Darwin’s (1871) hypothesis of sexual selection. It sun glare hides the details of backlit faces. then jumps to the ideas of Parker, Baker, and Smith To illustrate how gender PROOFSschemas and stereo- (1972) and Trivers (1972) about the selective forces typical gendered cognitive frames may impinge of sex- differential energetic costs of reproduction, on the evolutionary study of sex differences and with both arguments predicting that in most species, similarities, I (a) briefly review the elements (the females are the choosy sex and males the indiscrimi- flow of hypotheses) of the classical theory of the nate sex. Trivers and Parker et al. tied their ideas to evolution of sex differences and the nature of com- Bateman’s (1948) claims that greater among-male 1 mon empirical tests; (b) describe the discovery of variance in number of mates (VNM) produced higher flaws in Bateman’s (1948) linchpin study of sex variances in reproductive success (VRS) in males differencesUNCORRECTED in fitness (i.e., in mating and reproduc- than in females, thereby “proving” that evolutionary tive success); and (c) link the cognitive frames of potential is greater in males than in females. The essentialism and gender schemas to belief in the threads of logic and evidence from these sources 1 Fitness variances, such as in number of mates (VNM) or in reproductive success (VRS), are ideas important for understanding how Darwinian selection operates. Variances in components of fitness refer to the variation among individuals expressed as a population-level metric. In the absence of other information, higher variances in components of fitness indicate a greater potential for selection within a given population. 146 BK-APA-HPW_V1-170074-Chp08.indd 146 25/03/17 4:05 PM Biological Essentialism, Gender, True Belief, Confirmation Biases, and Skepticism have produced an evolutionary guide, a scenario for but few or no offspring” (p. 88). By 1871, he why the sexes are as they are (see Figure 8.1). had a more inclusive—and to my eyes, more Taking the scenario depicted in Figure 8.1 apart interesting—definition: “Sexual selection . depends to understand its power requires evaluation of the on the advantage which certain individuals have structure of the hypotheses of Darwin (1871), Trivers over other individuals of the same sex and species, in (1972), and Parker et al. (1972) and of the fidelity exclusive relation to reproduction” (p. 256). There of the data and conclusions from Bateman’s (1948) is
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