21 quotes
There are no average sex differences in IQ, for instance (much to the surprise and disappointment of both sexes).
A Billion Years of Sex Differences: How Evolution Shaped the Minds of Men and Women (2026)
Our genes push us in certain directions, but our genes aren’t the only things shaping us, and thus we can often push right back.
A Billion Years of Sex Differences: How Evolution Shaped the Minds of Men and Women (2026)
Unless sex differences are products of discrimination or cause demonstrable harm, progressives have no more right to eliminate them than traditionalists have to enlarge them.
A Billion Years of Sex Differences: How Evolution Shaped the Minds of Men and Women (2026)
If you treat a dog like a cat, it’ll still act like a dog. Maybe it’s the same with boys and girls.
A Billion Years of Sex Differences: How Evolution Shaped the Minds of Men and Women (2026)
In our primary approach to making babies, humans are more like the average bird than the average mammal. Again: all very weird.
A Billion Years of Sex Differences: How Evolution Shaped the Minds of Men and Women (2026)
In some frog species, females fake their own deaths to escape unwanted male attention; males, on the other hand, never fake theirs to escape female attention.
A Billion Years of Sex Differences: How Evolution Shaped the Minds of Men and Women (2026)
Even though the risks are real, the sexes do differ on average, and we can’t just lie about that. What we should do instead is tell the truth carefully.
A Billion Years of Sex Differences: How Evolution Shaped the Minds of Men and Women (2026)
Rather than being indicators of a sexist or oppressive society, sex differences may sometimes be indicators of the opposite: a comparatively free and fair one (emphasis on the “comparatively”).
A Billion Years of Sex Differences: How Evolution Shaped the Minds of Men and Women (2026)
The fact that more members of group X than group Y suffer problem Z is a bad reason to act as if only members of group X suffer problem Z.
A Billion Years of Sex Differences: How Evolution Shaped the Minds of Men and Women (2026)
Although more men than women make it to the top, more men than women also sink to the bottom – and the overwhelming majority of men don’t end up at either the top or the bottom.
A Billion Years of Sex Differences: How Evolution Shaped the Minds of Men and Women (2026)
We live in an age where, quite rightly, we encourage people to accept and celebrate differences and diversity, and yet we get outraged whenever anyone points any out. Not exactly tolerance of diversity!
A Billion Years of Sex Differences: How Evolution Shaped the Minds of Men and Women (2026)
It is true that women get fewer jobs in math-heavy STEM fields. But that’s only because fewer women apply for them. Those who do apply are generally more likely than men to be interviewed and more likely to get the job.
A Billion Years of Sex Differences: How Evolution Shaped the Minds of Men and Women (2026)
The most violent category of human being is the toddler, and the only reason we don’t worry more about the epidemic of toddler violence is that toddlers are small and cute, and can’t do much damage with their tiny fists.
A Billion Years of Sex Differences: How Evolution Shaped the Minds of Men and Women (2026)
Men corner the market on what evolutionary biologists call mate-choice failure, with documented cases involving everything from lampposts to trees to vacuum cleaners. We all make mistakes, I guess – but men more often than women.
A Billion Years of Sex Differences: How Evolution Shaped the Minds of Men and Women (2026)
The default assumption, in lieu of strong evidence to the contrary, should be that we’re continuous with the rest of the living world, and thus that the differences we see in our species have the same origin as those in every other: natural selection.
A Billion Years of Sex Differences: How Evolution Shaped the Minds of Men and Women (2026)
Even if toy makers and advertisers could conjure sex differences into existence on a whim, why would they? Toy makers would ideally want both sexes to covet their offerings, not just one or the other, as this would instantly double the size of their market.
A Billion Years of Sex Differences: How Evolution Shaped the Minds of Men and Women (2026)
We should treat individuals as individuals, rather than as instantiations of the statistical properties of the groups to which they belong. In other words, we should judge people by the content of their characters, not their sex chromosomes.
A Billion Years of Sex Differences: How Evolution Shaped the Minds of Men and Women (2026)
Some differences may never be completely eradicated – not, at any rate, without draconian interventions that limit people’s freedom and potentially make them miserable. Such interventions may be modern-day equivalents of earlier efforts to force gay people to be straight or left-handers to use their right hands: a progressive form of conversion therapy.
A Billion Years of Sex Differences: How Evolution Shaped the Minds of Men and Women (2026)
Even in the healthiest of relationships, a spouse’s or lover’s happiness isn’t necessarily our own. It’s rarely the case, for example, that upon hearing about a partner’s infidelity, people say “Oh, that’s nice! I love my partner, and I’m sure they had fun – so this is great news!”
A Billion Years of Sex Differences: How Evolution Shaped the Minds of Men and Women (2026)
Gender-role traditionalists assume that sex differences are natural, and therefore that they’re good. Gender-role progressives assume that sex differences are bad, and therefore that they’re not natural – or they assume that the absence of sex differences is natural, and therefore that the absence of sex differences is good, and that that’s what we ought to strive for.
A Billion Years of Sex Differences: How Evolution Shaped the Minds of Men and Women (2026)