Studiet udfordrer antagelsen om, at kønsforskelle i personlighed er små. Ved at anvende højere præcise målinger og multivariate effektstørrelser fandt forskerne, at den globale effektstørrelse for kønsforskelle i personlighed var D = 2.71, hvilket indikerer en kun 10% overlap mellem mandlige og kvindelige profiler. Resultaterne tyder på, at betydelige kønsforskelle i personlighed eksisterer, og den gængse opfattelse skal revideres.
Titel på undersøgelse:
The Distance Between Mars and Venus: Measuring Global Sex Differences in Personality.
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Hele abstrakt på originalsprog:
The study disputes the belief that sex differences in personality are minor, highlighting methodological weaknesses in prior research and proposing refined approaches: measuring personality beyond the Big Five, using latent factors for sex differences, and calculating multivariate effect sizes. Applying these guidelines to a large US sample (N=10,261) via the 16PF Questionnaire, the researchers used multigroup latent variable modeling to assess differences across personality dimensions, aggregating them into a global effect size (Mahalanobis D). They found a striking D=2.71, with only 10% overlap between male and female distributions, and even excluding the largest univariate difference, D=1.71 (24% overlap)—both exceptionally large by psychological standards. This suggests that significant personality differences between sexes have been underestimated due to flawed methods, urging a rejection of the notion of minimal variation and a rethinking of how these differences are studied.