Delusions of Gender: How Our Minds, Society, and Neurosexism Create Difference

The popular notion that the human brain is essentially preprogrammed for behavior at birth. Fine (and many other scientists) cast doubt upon this theory, believing behavior to be the result of complex interactions between brain, genes, and environment.

The concentration of brain activity in one half or the other of the brain. Neurosexist theories suggest that men’s brains lateralize their functions more than women’s do, thereby justifying stories about men’s and women’s different capacities; the evidence does not support these theories.

The study of the nervous system, particularly the function and structure of the brain.

The practice of finding excuses for sexist beliefs in the interpretation, or misinterpretation, of neuroscience. Neurosexist reasoning might, for example, maintain that women’s brains are primed to notice detail (predisposing them to be good at housework), while men’s are better at spatial manipulation (predisposing them to hold well-paid engineering jobs). Fine finds numerous examples of neurosexism in the sciences, including the misinterpretation of data to support a foregone sexist conclusion, and the (intentional or unintentional) design of studies to uphold stereotypes. Fine is credited with coining this term.

The process by which the introduction of the idea of gender (or other identity categories) unconsciously prepares people to behave in stereotypical ways. For instance, students who are primed by checking a box to indicate whether they are male or female at the beginning of a math test will perform better or worse on that test along stereotypical lines.