[jimbobghost (OP)]

as a poor student in the study of women, in addition to Dr. Freud's question of "what do women want?"; a secondary question has haunted me:

do women actually possess an intuitiveness that is greater than men?

my opinion is that they do not. I believe they simply throw out a great deal of verbiage, of which a certain percentage is eventually proven correct.

do any of the great minds herein have any evidence for or against the concept that women, in general, have some kind of wisdom that eludes men?

[David Cooper]

Some individuals are just better at reading the signs than others, so they pick up on all sorts of things that others miss, and they do this subconsciously. In relation to thinking about other people's feelings, women generally focus more carefully on that, and most of their "intuition" relates to that kind of thing in one way or another. Men are generally more focused on other kinds of signs that don't relate to how people feel, so they develop "intuitions" relating to the things that interest them most, but they don't bother to claim any superiority in the intuitions department. The way that women concentrate more on thinking about how other people feel probably has an evolutionary cause - they spend more time reading how children feel, and how potentially abusive husbands feel too, so the latter makes this an aid to direct survival and the former makes survival of the children more likely, strengthening the relevant genes in the future population. They take more interest in other people generally and hold more knowledge about them to crunch, making it easier to make predictions about them. Some men can match them, of course, just as some men have no intuition about putting together flat-pack furniture - intuition comes from practice, and the kinds of things you work on to acquire skills are driven by interests driven partly by genetics. We see this with young chimps when they're given toy cars and dolls to play with - the boy chimps go for the things with wheels while the females go for the dolls. In the wild, young female chimps have also been seen carrying a stone on their back which they treat as if it's a baby chimp (even taking it to bed with them), so the idea of a doll is already in them.

[jimbobghost (OP)]

David,

not to negate any other of your previous observations, your comments about chimpanzees was very interesting.

I have not ever been aware of that before...might make some herein a bit uncomfortable.

[David Cooper]

I think it was a TV programme narrated by Chris Packham that showed the chimps using stones as substitute babies - part of a long series about odd things in nature. A google search isn't finding anything about that, but there are several results about young female chimps using sticks in the same way. For example, https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/12/101220121109.htm

[jimbobghost (OP)]

David,

where are the other posters of this topic?...i just noticed i am hogging the topic.

i think i will take a break and give others a chance to respond.

[ATMD]

I agree that some people pick up on the subconscious level without consciously realizing it, and we call it "intuition"

[jimbobghost (OP)]

ATMD,
if i am not the first, may i welcome you to the chaos known as something i think of as "The Scientist with no clothes".

but getting to your point...i have come to the belief that intuition is primarily a defense that women use as an excape from their inability to utilize logic. altho men may have the intuitive ability, men prefer to use logic to solve problems.

this is a weakness that unfortunately women are unable to overcome, since it serves their interest well; given the desire of men to supress women's unhidden abilities of logical reasoning.

this just my opinion...others might disagree.

[Colin2B]

We see this with young chimps when they're given toy cars and dolls to play with.

A similar test was shown in a TV programme. Researchers put toys on the ground below a troupe of monkeys, the females selected the dolls, the males were interested in the  mechanical toys eg moving wheels. However, these were adults so it was difficult to decide whether this was learnt behaviour, but there is some evidence that maternal is an instinct in monkeys, but might not be in humans - psychologists refer to drives in humans rather than instincts,  because a drive can be over-ridden.

.i have come to the belief that intuition is primarily a defense that women use as an excape from their inability to utilize logic. altho men may have the intuitive ability, men prefer to use logic to solve problems.

this is a weakness that unfortunately women are unable to overcome, since it serves their interest well; given the desire of men to supress women's unhidden abilities of logical reasoning.

this just my opinion...others might disagree.

Researchers would disagree.
Research and testing consistently show that women are as good as men at logic and are just as intelligent.
One major study at the University of Edinburgh with 500,000 enrollees of which a subset of 2750 women and 2466 men underwent brain scans using MRI, found that women tended to have significantly thicker cortices than men. Thicker cortices have been associated with higher scores on a variety of cognitive and general intelligence tests. Cortical thickness between men tended to vary much more than they did between women, but on average, when tested, there were no significant differences between male and female intelligence; this lines up with previous work looking at sex and IQ tests.

Clearly there are males who need the emotional crutch of believing that women are mentally inferior, but research does not back this up. It is likely that these individuals are more susceptible to confirmation bias and may well choose a less intelligent partner to reinforce their false beliefs.

It is also important to understand what @David Cooper says

intuition comes from practice, and the kinds of things you work on to acquire skills are driven by interests driven partly by genetics.

Intuition is not born of some mindless, inbuilt ability, but is gained by observation, logical deduction and practice. It is an intelligent, learnt response.

One study, which involved imaging the brains of nearly 1,000 adolescents, found that male brains had more connections within hemispheres, whereas female brains were more connected between hemispheres. The results suggest that male brains may be optimized for motor skills (mainly front to back connections), and female brains may be optimized for combining analytical and intuitive thinking - greater cross-brain connections give access to a greater range of data/experience and the ability to interconnect that data/experiences.

[jimbobghost (OP)]

how do the researchers feel about this documentation?

google "woman with nail in head"

[ATMD]

ATMD,
if i am not the first, may i welcome you to the chaos known as something i think of as "The Scientist with no clothes".

but getting to your point...i have come to the belief that intuition is primarily a defense that women use as an excape from their inability to utilize logic. altho men may have the intuitive ability, men prefer to use logic to solve problems.

this is a weakness that unfortunately women are unable to overcome, since it serves their interest well; given the desire of men to supress women's unhidden abilities of logical reasoning.

this just my opinion...others might disagree.

Lol I am sure female scientists are extremely logical, and some women are excellent mathematicians as well. As we know, maths require a high level of logical ability.

[jimbobghost (OP)]

ATMD,

in support of your observation, the code of the Enigma Machine was broken with the assistance of a team of women, selected for their intuitive instincts.

[Colin2B]

how do the researchers feel about this documentation?

google "woman with nail in head"

The researchers would be seeking to draw conclusions about the general population and so worked with a large, representative sample. So, the results would not be influenced by the presence or absence of a particular individual.
Also, it is impossible to draw conclusions about a general population from a single individual, so if anyone were to suggest that it was relevant information the researchers would probably conclude that that person was devoid of any critical reasoning ability.

ATMD,

in support of your observation, the code of the Enigma Machine was broken with the assistance of a team of women, selected for their intuitive instincts.

That is incorrect. As part of my work I had very close contacts with Bletchley Park and got to talk to people who had worked there in the war.
The women selected were linguists, mathematicians, and crossword experts, some held degrees in mathematics, physics and engineering and their logical and lateral thinking was highly valued. Instinct had nothing to do with it. Don’t believe what you see in the films.

[ATMD]

The women selected were linguists, mathematicians, and crossword experts, some held degrees in mathematics, physics and engineering and their logical and lateral thinking was highly valued. Instinct had nothing to do with it. Don’t believe what you see in the films.

I don't doubt this at all. I don't see any gender superiority when it comes to logic and rational thinking.

[jimbobghost (OP)]

Colin,

thank you for contributing your first hand knowledge of a fascinating part of WWII.

I will cease to believe what I see in the movies

[guest39538]

Colin,

thank you for contributing your first hand knowledge of a fascinating part of WWII.

I will cease to believe what I see in the movies

Looking forward  to  world 3  to be  honest ,  call me morbid  but  it  will get rid  of  the  disease  of  humans off this planet . A  lonely  rock  must  be  better  than  having  us living on it . 

[ATMD]

Colin,

thank you for contributing your first hand knowledge of a fascinating part of WWII.

I will cease to believe what I see in the movies

Looking forward  to  world 3  to be  honest ,  call me morbid  but  it  will get rid  of  the  disease  of  humans off this planet . A  lonely  rock  must  be  better  than  having  us living on it .

Lol,  What could we do to make earth happy? Plant more trees?

[ATMD]

Colin,

thank you for contributing your first hand knowledge of a fascinating part of WWII.

I will cease to believe what I see in the movies

Lol, my sarcasm detector has blown out.

[jimbobghost (OP)]

let it be known that I was sincere in my appreciation of Colin's comments.

only the movie part was satirical...I intend to continue to believe everything I see in the movies.

[ATMD]

let it be known that I was sincere in my appreciation of Colin's comments.

only the movie part was satirical...I intend to continue to believe everything I see in the movies.

Hahaha