I believe the interchangable use of biological and innate is extremely damaging to discussion and beliefs in all spheres and so we should raise our consciousness to that (and not perpetuate any mistaken ‘layman’ predicates). I am very glad you can see my point there.

Imagine what would happen if two branches of the media reported these findings, one using that assumption, one not. Its not difficult to see that assumption having massive political implications - so there is a real importance (beyond truth-seeking) to challenging this idea.

Finally, hard-wired areas, certain ones (such as sensory, abstract thought, ability to create representations etc) are the supports on which flexibility can stand - in the same way that learning a language allows you to express far more complex thoughts for less energy (as opposed to someone who has autism for instance). Both of these feed into each other, complex thoughts get names and get lobbed back into language as concepts - and increasing use of these hard-wired areas allows an individual to develop a more nuanced final flexibility in their thoughts and behaviours.

@Clabbe
Thanks for pointing me to the article!

@Gilesy
Yes, innate is a more precise word than biological. However, in layman’s terms “biological” represents “innate”. I like precise words though, so I’ll think about your feedback.

I agree that the brain is very flexible; in fact, it would be difficult for such a complex system to not be flexible. However, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t hardwired parts too, it simply means that the brain has the potential to transcend those hardwired parts, if the environment demands it.

People tend to quickly forget that the brain is rediculously flexible in virtually everything it does. Especially when people use evolutionary explanations as sure-fire ways of establishing innate determinism for stereotypical behaviours (no doubt with some sort of justification for political or social views lurking no far behind).

I’d like to point out that I believe you used the term biological as a synonym for ‘innate’ - I’m sure you’re well aware that biology is the medium that is affected by both innate and social factors - Theres also a lot of social-heavy explanations that would expect the same results from those biological findings. If a child is told stories about prince charming making their life a dream and being happy with the right people, and that happens to be a female stereotype perpetuated by culture - then bam back to the ‘now where the f*ck does this go on the nature-nurture continuum???

That said, some really solid behavioural evidence for generally innate sex differences just after childbirth (about as low a social element as you can get), plus brain sizes, grey to white matter ratio stuff like that.