this post was submitted on 30 Mar 2025
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I’ve never understood why some people find these kinds of discoveries surprising. What would actually be surprising is studying differences between groups and not finding any. The key is to remember that group differences are about averages - they don’t apply to individuals. A person won’t have better hearing just because they’re a woman. The variation between individuals within a group is usually greater than the average difference between groups.
It's not necessarily surprising, more like.. interesting? There are so many superstitions when it comes to differences between sexes. It is good to read something real science-based on these topics. The question is, how good of a research this is, though - it's always good to check.
What you say about averages is true, but it can differ a lot. There can be characteristics in which the groups overlap so much that the effect is impossible to observe IRL. There can also be characteristics that overlap so little that it's an obvious difference - I believe muscle growth and physical strength is an example of the latter.