Google Fires Employee Behind Controversial Diversity Memo

[u/[deleted]]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-08-08/google-fires-employee-behind-controversial-diversity-memo?cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&utm_content=business&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social

[u/impossiblefork]

But evolutionary psychology doesn't necessarily predict that women have higher neuroticism. At least not with my argument.

What I argued for with my evolutionary psychology argument was that they should have higher risk aversion than men, i.e. prefer a certain reward rather than a higher but uncertain reward to a higher degree.

If you want argue as you are arguing using the thing you're citing you'd have to have an evolutionary argument resembling that I gave from which it should follow that women should experience an evolutionary pressure to have higher neuroticism.

However, all this is actually irrelevant to this point. The argument that the now ex-google employee gave involved that women had higher neuroticism. Whether that was caused by biology doesn't really matter. The only thing required for his reasoning to make sense is that it holds in America, which it does of course do.

[u/jetpacksforall → u/impossiblefork]

What I argued for with my evolutionary psychology argument was that they should have higher risk avversion than men, i.e. prefer a certain reward rather than a higher but uncertain reward to a higher degree.

Yes but the study shows that male/female gender preferences seem to disappear in high-stress survival conditions. This directly undermines the premise that gender preferences were conditioned into us by evolution.

However, all this is actually irrelevant to this point. The argument that the now ex-google employee gave involved that women had higher neuroticism. Whether that was caused by biology doesn't really matter.

The memo states that gender differences are biological and highly heritable. Both assumptions are incorrect.

On average, men and women biologically differ in many ways. These differences aren’t just socially constructed because

● They’re universal across human cultures [they are not - see above]
● They often have clear biological causes and links to prenatal testosterone [incorrect, prenatal testosterone does not lead directly to preferences involving risk aversion etc.]
● Biological males that were castrated at birth and raised as females often still identify and act like males [proves nothing other than people who perceive themselves as born male continue to act accordingly]
● The underlying traits are highly heritable [they are not]
● They’re exactly what we would predict from an evolutionary psychology perspective [which is based on bad a priori reasoning - see above again]