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Comment by ggggtez | Hacker News Reader

You only seem interested in discussing gender to bring up the ghost of genetic predispositions. But if you want to twist the study in that way, you'll have to first say that you think that whites are genetically superior to non-white in the world of computer science. After all, doesn't the study show the gap is even greater for nationality?

Just come out and say it, instead of having this proxy argument over gender.

If it isn't clear: this study can not be used to draw conclusions about racial or gender predispositions. This can only be used to show the status of education on this particular test and for people graduating right now. It doesn't control for how those people got there. If you want to twist it in some other way, that's your prerogative, but you're doing shoddy science.

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You're making very strong claims against me, but I think we're on the same side. The paper disappoints me because they attempt to think of all the explanatory variables for the differences between countries, then they turn to gender and end on a chart. It's impossible to read the paper and come away with the impression that whites are simply better at coding, because the authors give so much context to their findings.

I am agnostic to the cause of the gender difference, and clearly this study didn't have enough information to give any insights. That's why I find it so unsatisfying that they would put up a chart and mention gender differences if they weren't interested or capable of expanding on the results beyond "[...] more effort is needed to attract higher-achieving female students into CS."

> You only seem interested in discussing gender to bring up the ghost of genetic predispositions. But if you want to twist the study in that way

This feels really disingenuous. The questions they brought up are perfectly fine, it's you who seems to be intent on poisoning the discussion by attacking them instead of discussing the issue.

> you'll have to first say that you think that whites are genetically superior to non-white in the world of computer science. After all, doesn't the study show the gap is even greater for nationality?

Nationality is not the same thing as race/ethnicity. At the very least, in the US, a substantial percentage of CS majors are of Asian descent, not European.

"Did Bush do 9/11? Can jetfuel really melt steel beams? Are other races and genders worse at computer science than me because they are genetically inferior? I'm just asking questions!" said the online poster.

Just because they measured the data, does not imply they were trying to explain it. To explain a result would need a very different experimental setup. Every scientist knows this. It's not a conspiracy if a scientist declines to throw darts at a wall on the cause of something. In fact, they specifically say the cause is likely not explainable by the test differences, which were too small.

"The within-country gender gaps in skills are small enough, however, that they may explain little about gender gaps in CS graduates’ labor market outcomes".

In fact, the poster is not "just asking questions". They have a clear opinion, and ignored the researcher's own statements to the contrary.

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