Maybe what I really mean is: you’re only smart because you think you are. This article from NPR explains the internalization and resulting external expression of cultural norms surrounding gender, but supports the claim with evidence that peoples’ cognitive abilities are directly associated with self perception — perception based on culturally structured norms. Heady, right?
FTA:
The differences in performance on the test were pronounced; this is a real behavioral difference, the sort of different that could easily make a difference, for example, to performance on the job. But what caused the difference? Not anything in the make-up or constitution of the tested individuals. The controlling factor was an accidental fact about which imaginative exercises individuals had been assigned in the pre-test situation.
This is a glorious and beautiful finding, for it reveals something deep and pervasive in human life.
Read the whole article here.
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