HBs: Male vs. Female

[Bob B.]

I think it is pretty safe to say that the moon-landing HBs who have visited this forum (and other forums) are overwhelmingly men. It also seems to me that CTs in general are predominately men. I’m wondering if any of you have thoughts on why this might be. Here are some questions to start you thinking:

Is it just a statistical anomaly?

Are men more open and willing to talk about their CT beliefs than women?

Is there some macho thing that makes men want to argue about it?

Are men more cynical than women?

Are men more gullible than women?

Are men more drawn to the Apollo hoax because of its technical nature?


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[Nowhere Man]

Are women more intelligent or analytical than men?

Do women have better things to do with their time than men do?

OTOH, Nancy Leider (she of Planet X in 2003 and the Zetas) is a counter-example.

Fred

[Bob B.]

What the true proportion of male vs. female HBs is, I have no idea, but here's my hypothesis for why we have so many more men than women coming to the forum:

I tend to believe women are more timid about speaking up on subject they know little about. Men, on the other hand, tend to want to show off how smart they are and are less bashful about trying to bluster their way through a discussion they know nothing about. I also think that men are by nature a bit more competitive than women; hence they actually seek the confrontation as if it were a sporting event.

I could be way off the mark, but that's my 2 cents.

[Mr Gorsky]

Men are also far more reluctant to admit when they have got something wrong, and some will defend their wrongness with everything at their disposal ... which in the case of HBs isn't very much.

[Grendels dad]

I wonder how broadly the term HB should be defined here. If we accept all of the woo-woo beliefs of the "new age" crowd (crystal healing, astral projection, etc.) then my own anecdotal evidence would tend to level the discrepancy between genders. Keep in mind I am in Boulder Colorado as I write this, and the area has more woo per capita than most anywhere else I have been!

Maybe it is just the technical nature of the focus of this board that makes the results seen here seem skewed. Although there are many women in technical career fields they are still outnumbered there. At least it is true at the aerospace company I work at, and most all of the courses I have had in technical related fields were a little heavy on the male side as well. I seem to recall seeing a survey confirming this in a larger context also.

[Bob B.]

grendalsdad said:

I wonder how broadly the term HB should be defined here. If we accept all of the woo-woo beliefs of the "new age" crowd (crystal healing, astral projection, etc.) then my own anecdotal evidence would tend to level the discrepancy between genders.

This is a very good point and one of the reasons I started this thread. I'm trying to determine if the preference toward male CTs is just because of the Apollo subject matter or if men really are more prone to being CTs overall. You've now provided some evidence that seems to indicate conspiracism is more balanced between the sexes than I had previously observed. Thank you.

Maybe men are not more prone to believe woo after all; it’s just that men and women tend to believe in different types of woo. For what you've observed, do you think women argue their woo-woo beliefs as fanatically as the men?

grendalsdad said:

Maybe it is just the technical nature of the focus of this board that makes the results seen here seem skewed.

Yes, this is one of the questions I asked in my opening post. I suspect that the results I've seen are largely skewed by the nature of the subject matter. Since men overall seem to have more interest in space, it only stands to reason that a space-related conspiracy theory will also attract a largely male audience.

Something else I wonder about are 9/11, JFK, and some of the other conspiracy theories. I normally see these argued by men as well, but the debates are usually spin-offs of the Apollo discussion, thus the participants are the same. Are women actively involved in these conspiracy theories outside of a science forum like this one?

[Joe Durnavich]

Are women actively involved in these conspiracy theories outside of a science forum like this one?

In the JFK arena, definitely yes. Some of the most hardcore and active conspiracy theorists are women.

[Bob B.]

joedurnavich said:

Are women actively involved in these conspiracy theories outside of a science forum like this one?

In the JFK arena, definitely yes. Some of the most hardcore and active conspiracy theorists are women.

Ah... a clearer picture is starting to emerge.

I didn't think about it earlier, but now as I reflect on the TV shows I've seen about UFOs, alien abduction, and crop circles, there seemed to be just about as many women as men. Perhaps I was too hard on my own gender earlier; it's starting to look like the gals are just as kooky as the guys.

[JayUtah]

Before you consider the question of whether conspiracists and debunkers are predominantly male, you should probably consider whether the contributers to web forums are predominantly male. I'm pretty sure I'm predominantly male.

[Retrograde]

bob said:

Men, on the other hand, tend to want to show off how smart they are and are less bashful about trying to bluster their way through a discussion they know nothing about.

I have nothing but anecdotal evidence, but my opinion is that "Me Tarzan!" is a very big part of it...

[Bob B.]

jayutah said:

Before you consider the question of whether conspiracists and debunkers are predominantly male, you should probably consider whether the contributers to web forums are predominantly male. I'm pretty sure I'm predominantly male.

This is what I was alluding to when I posted the opening questions:

Are men more open and willing to talk about their CT beliefs than women?
Is there some macho thing that makes men want to argue about it?
Are men more drawn to the Apollo hoax because of its technical nature?

The answers to these questions might explain the statistics. I don't think there is any question men dominate the membership of forums like this one, but I have no idea what the statistics are Internet wide. Surely there are some forums that are predominately women. My main question is, why do we see the statistics we do?

Let's say we conducted a random poll and asked participants whether the moon landings were real. Would we get a significantly different response between men and women? If yes, then why does one sex believe more in the hoax than another? If no, then why does it seem to be only the men that come to this forum to talk about it?

My gut feeling is that belief in the moon hoax is not as one sided between the sexes as initial impressions seem to indicate. Yet, a man has created every moon hoax Web page I’ve seen. Virtually every wacko coming to this forum to debate with us is a man. Why do the statistics appear to be so one-sided?

I think the reason may be as I stated in Reply #2 above, or the "Me Tarzan!" phenomenon as KOS called it. I also think it is a topic that is generally more interesting to men than women. I don't think it is because men are more gullible or ignorant -- women fall for their fair share of woo as well.

[bughead]

We can choose gender when we register. Do we know for sure who's who and what kind of skivvies they really wear?

[Bob B.]

bughead said:

We can choose gender when we register. Do we know for sure who's who and what kind of skivvies they really wear?

There is certainly nothing to stop a person from lying about their gender, so I guess there is no way to know for sure. If we are to trust what people tell us, then there are currently 62 members of this forum registered as male, 4 registered as female, and 172 unspecified.

Often gender never comes up in the discussion, but when it does the person usually claims to be male. It certainly possible they are fibbering, perhaps because they think it will give them more credibility when talking about a technical subject with a bunch of guys. It personally doesn't matter to me because crap is crap no matter who says it.

[Count Zero]

IIRC, the HB called "star" was female. She was here a while back, though I don't recall if that was on the old board.