At Marginal Revolution, Tyler Cowen writes up a new paper on an old topic: evolutionary psychologists like to point out that, contrary to the mainstream social constructionism, in feminist countries like Sweden there seem to be bigger gaps between the interests of men and women than in chauvinist countries like Afghanistan:
by Tyler Cowen November 10, 2021 at 12:29 am in Data Source Web/Tech
This is taken from new work by Ángel Cuevas, Rubén Cuevas, Klaus Desmet, and Ignacio Ortuño-Ortín. Here is the abstract:
This paper uses information on the frequency of 45,397 Facebook interests to study how the difference in preferences between men and women changes with a country’s degree of gender equality. For preference dimensions that are systematically biased toward the same gender across the globe, differences between men and women are larger in more gender-equal countries. In contrast, for preference dimensions with a gender bias that varies across countries, the opposite holds. This finding takes an important step toward reconciling evolutionary psychology and social role theory as they relate to gender.
Here is a bit more:
Our premise is that innately gender-specific interests should mostly conform to evolutionary psychology theory, whereas other interests should mostly conform to social role theory. We find strong evidence consistent with this premise.
And some detail on the categories:
We say that an interest is gender-related if it displays a systematic bias toward the same gender across the globe. More specifically, if in more than 90% of countries an interest is more prevalent among the same gender, then we refer to it as gender-related. For example, “cosmetics” and “motherhood” are universally more common among women, whereas “motorcycles” and “Lionel Messi” are universally more common among men.
Conversely, we say that an interest is non-gender-related if its gender bias varies across countries. More specifically, if an interest is more common among men in at least 30% of countries and more common among women in at least another 30% of countries, then we refer to it as nongender-related. For example, “world heritage site” and “physical fitness” do not display a systematic gender bias across the globe.
And indeed everything works out as one ought to expect. In the more gender-equal countries, men have “more male” interests, and the women have “more female” interests. But for the less gender-specific interests, greater equality ends up resulting….
Here are some of the 500 most masculine Facebook interests:
BMW M4; Europe; Brazilian jiu-jitsu; Women’s association football; Sports games; Google; Drifting (motorsport); S.S. Lazio; A.C. Milan; Calciatori Brutti; Insurance; Diesel engine; Tool; Company; Manchester United F.C.; Football team; Google Play; Supercar; Russian language; Chelsea F.C.; Apple Inc.; Finland; Neymar; Action games; Motorcycle racing; La Gazzetta dello Sport; Huawei; Euro; Samsung; Inter Milan; Lexus; PlayStation; Grappling; Video; Information technology; Victory; Gamer (film); Champion (sportswear); Major League Soccer; Mobile game; Boats; Kickboxing; Banking; FC Barcelona; Sony; Land Rover; Skiing; New York City; President of the United States; Wi-Fi; Shooter games; Cloud computing; Electricity; Driving; LFC TV; Mazda; Multinational corporation; Volvo;
And here are some of the 500 most feminine interests:
Cookbook; Health care; Slow Food; Anita Dongre; Sweetness; Embroidery; Michelin Guide; IKEA; Beverages; Hair coloring; Yarn; Gown; Physical attractiveness; Teacher; Adult; Idea; Wedding planner; Carbohydrate; Chile; Knitting; Too Faced Cosmetics; Tuxedo; Wine; Sari; Street fashion; Permanent makeup; Pasta; Cook (profession); Earring; Perception; Puberty; French cuisine; Nail salon; Spirituality; Lakme Fashion Week; Ritu Kumar; Peru; Kindergarten; Human hair color; Coffeehouses; Diaper; Country Living; Drawing; tarte cosmetics; Baker; Bakery; Tattoos; Birthday cake; Biology; Manish Malhotra; Romance novels; Father’s Day; Latin music (genre); Restaurants; Cheese; Silk; Ethics; Big (film); Musical film; Chic; Amor (film); Gastronomy; Kylie Jenner; Home (2009 film); Patisserie; Organic food; Singer-songwriter; Foot; Juice; Farmhouse; Artist; Fast food; Variety (magazine); Vogue (magazine); Big Ben; Tarot;
Unfortunately, the article doesn’t list many gender-balanced interests. Here are a few more examples:
“language school”, “blood donation” and “positive attitude quotes”
I suspect that as interests become more specific, they tend to become more gender-specific as well. Consider the following progression of interests from broad to narrow:
Recreation
Sports
Outdoor Sports
Golf
Golf Course Architecture
My guess is that you’d move from about 50% male / 50% female for recreation to maybe 90% for golf and then 99% male for golf course architecture. I suspect other topics tend to operate like this as well.
This might help explain some of why Swedes are seen as about 80% more gender different in Facebook interests than are Afghans: perhaps Swedes, being richer, smarter, and more intellectually obsessive than Afghans, tend to have more narrow niche interests.
