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Comment by hnarn | Hacker News Reader

How does accepting both of these somehow invalidate the belief that gendered behavior is mostly social or learned?

For myself, because I have raised children of my own. I have 5 kids, 2 boys and 3 girls. At 2 years old, kids do not give a flying fuck about social norms. They just want to play. And from the earliest ages you see children playing differently based on gender. You give a small child the choice between a doll and a stick, you can guess which will be picked by gender and be right most of the time. Give your daughter a dump truck and she will turn it into a stroller. Give your son a doll and he will be wrestling with it.

This may be your experience, however I have extreme doubt that these are anything but learned behaviors. There is nothing intrinsically masculine or feminine about sticks, dump trucks, strollers, or dolls. They are just objects, and for the majority of human existence the latter three didn't even exist in their current form.

All knowledge of these objects, what they're used for, and who uses them were learned from societal influences. A kid doesn't have to care about social norms to tell that most people they see playing with sticks or driving dump trucks are men, and most people they see pushing strollers and playing with dolls are women. It's like that from out in the park to within picture books.

What is your experience or could you link to a study that confirms your point of view?

I think the person you're responding to said "for people who don't believe in sex-based personality differences"

Asserting that there are sex-based personality differences is not incompatible with gendered behavior being mostly social or learned.

Or the idea that we shouldn't be using population-level trend data to implement statistical discrimination on the individual level.

My take is that it takes social and learned behavior to overcome gender differences. They tamp down, not amplify.

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