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017: Does science have a gender bias? It depends on who you ask.

National_Association_Against_Woman_Suffrage
Later that day: “Um… oh… uh… no, Dear! I swear I thought it said ‘suffering.’ Please let me back in the house.”

Shocking Fact No. 1: If you put a woman’s name and a man’s name on the exact same job application for lab manager, the woman is described as less competent and will be offered less money.

Shocking fact No. 2: If you show  the results of that experiment to faculty members in scientific fields, the men are less likely to believe the results.  They say the research is flawed and the findings are suspect.

Question: What happens if you change the results of the resume experiment?  Will those male faculty members still think the research was shoddy?  Or will they believe the new results because it fits with their pre-conceived notions about hiring?

On this week’s show, we discuss some new research that gives hints as to why gender bias in the scientific community is so pernicious.  How can you solve a problem when not everyone will admit that the problem exists in the first place?

And before you leap to judgement about those unenlightened pigs, be sure to check your OWN implicit biases with these simple tests.

Everyday Sadism

We’re also celebrating Halloween with a murderous IPA from Shipyard Brewing in Portland, Maine.  It’s the “Little Horror of Hops,” and the mascot is this handsome devil:

HorrorHops_12oz 5X

We enjoy the bitter brew, and Daniel reveals the darker side of our taste preferences.  Recent research implies that people who enjoy flavors like coffee and beer are actually more likely to express psychopathic tendencies!  That explains a lot about the Hello PhD hosts…

We hope you have a Hoppy Halloween (see what I did there?) and please tweet your #ScaryScience costumes to @hellophd.

 

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