Jun 27, 2018 08:47 PM
(This post was last modified: Jun 27, 2018 08:48 PM by C C.)
Women show sexual preference for tall, dominant men – so is gender inequality inevitable?
https://theconversation.com/women-show-s...able-98159
EXCERPT: The old cliché tells us the most desirable men are “tall, dark, and handsome” – and scientific research confirms that heterosexual women tend to prefer partners who are taller than them.
One study found that, on average, women’s satisfaction with their partner’s actual height was greatest when he was 21cm taller than themselves. Conversely, men’s satisfaction was greatest with a woman who was 8cm shorter than them. Not only do women want taller men; they seem to favour a bigger height difference than men.
Women’s choice of taller men might indicate a preference for men who are more dominant, which may be due to the way that biological evolution has shaped our brains. This in turn may have shaped our culture, and the norms that reinforce the expectation that a man should be taller than his female partner.
Fortunately, we can change our culture....
MORE: https://theconversation.com/women-show-s...able-98159
Data ethics is more than just what we do with data, it’s also about who’s doing it
https://theconversation.com/data-ethics-...g-it-98010
EXCERPT: If the recent Cambridge Analytica data scandal has taught us anything, it’s that the ethical cultures of our largest tech firms need tougher scrutiny. But moral questions about what data should be collected and how it should be used are only the beginning. They raise broader questions about who gets to make those decisions in the first place.
We currently have a system in which power over the judicious and ethical use of data is overwhelmingly concentrated among white men. Research shows that the unconscious biases that emerge from a person’s upbringing and experiences can be baked into technology, resulting in negative consequences for minority groups.
These biases are difficult to shed, which makes workplace diversity a powerful and necessary tool for catching unsuspected bias before it has a chance to cause damage. As the impact of data-driven algorithms and decisions grows more profound, we need to ask: how is this going to change in the future? Unfortunately, the indicators suggest the answer is: not much....
MORE: https://theconversation.com/data-ethics-...g-it-98010
https://theconversation.com/women-show-s...able-98159
EXCERPT: The old cliché tells us the most desirable men are “tall, dark, and handsome” – and scientific research confirms that heterosexual women tend to prefer partners who are taller than them.
One study found that, on average, women’s satisfaction with their partner’s actual height was greatest when he was 21cm taller than themselves. Conversely, men’s satisfaction was greatest with a woman who was 8cm shorter than them. Not only do women want taller men; they seem to favour a bigger height difference than men.
Women’s choice of taller men might indicate a preference for men who are more dominant, which may be due to the way that biological evolution has shaped our brains. This in turn may have shaped our culture, and the norms that reinforce the expectation that a man should be taller than his female partner.
Fortunately, we can change our culture....
MORE: https://theconversation.com/women-show-s...able-98159
Data ethics is more than just what we do with data, it’s also about who’s doing it
https://theconversation.com/data-ethics-...g-it-98010
EXCERPT: If the recent Cambridge Analytica data scandal has taught us anything, it’s that the ethical cultures of our largest tech firms need tougher scrutiny. But moral questions about what data should be collected and how it should be used are only the beginning. They raise broader questions about who gets to make those decisions in the first place.
We currently have a system in which power over the judicious and ethical use of data is overwhelmingly concentrated among white men. Research shows that the unconscious biases that emerge from a person’s upbringing and experiences can be baked into technology, resulting in negative consequences for minority groups.
These biases are difficult to shed, which makes workplace diversity a powerful and necessary tool for catching unsuspected bias before it has a chance to cause damage. As the impact of data-driven algorithms and decisions grows more profound, we need to ask: how is this going to change in the future? Unfortunately, the indicators suggest the answer is: not much....
MORE: https://theconversation.com/data-ethics-...g-it-98010
