Thursday 3 January 2008

Objectivity

I was reading an article in Scientific American which was looking at why women don't choose jobs in Science and Engineering. The reasons seem to be manifold, however there were some interesting points made.
In mathematical aptitude testing of men and women, overall, both scored the same but the men had a much wider range, both more gifted and more hopeless.
Odd, but not scary. What was scary however, was subjective peer rating of women for jobs in Science and Engineering.
The researchers rated candidates on a number of objective criteria, such as how many times they had been published, the quality of the research and so on. When the candidates were then peer rated, the highest scoring group of women on the objective scale, were rated subjectively by the peers lower than the lowest scoring group of men. Insane.

Meanwhile, another article dealt with the notion of boredom. Researchers found that boredom was an internal event and was not as a result of boring stimuli. Boredom is not caused by the boring, it is experienced by them. There was also a strong link with attention.

And who could possibly be bored in Ikea? You're right of course, the answer is no-one. Jeremy, thereby qualifying himself as all time top nephew, wanted to go to Ikea yesterday, and we spent an enjoyable hour or so appraising everything, EVERYTHING!!
It rocked.

9 comments:

Sleepy said...

Ikea is basically heaven on earth...
Can't sleep... Going to have hot Marmite!

Schneewittchen said...

It's what I'd do:)

Anonymous said...

I'll need to go to Ikea in the next while (after I hopefully recover from my near-death virus) to finally get a small desk/table and maybe a few other things.
I'll need your help, so you can look forward to this. We can even touch some things.
- Karen

Sleepy said...

Schnee.. Only look forward to it if you want to help!
You know how tricksy desks can be.

Beware ALL lifting that doesn't involve stuff going in YOUR house.

Schneewittchen said...

It's true Karen, touching desks is one thing, lifting them is quite an other.
Still, I do like being subversive and eating in the canteen there.

Sleepy said...

You have to give the Ikea anchovies a go apparently!

They are slightly bigger and have a subtler taste than our usual ones.

Sleepy said...

After some wine and a smoke.

I have decided that instead of sitting in a bath of Baked Beans for "Charity", I'll sit in Ikea Swedish Meatballs.

In fact, 'Charity' needn't be involved.

Schneewittchen said...

I'll join ya, and let's do it for science!

Sleepy said...

Ooooh Yes! Science!