A woman's masculine type of thinking. Differences in the brain structure of men and women and what they mean

First of all, it is worth understanding how the female type of thinking differs from the male one. The point is not who is smarter, but that in the same situation, women's thoughts will differ from men's.

Differences between male and female thinking

Men who are accustomed to relying on logic use the right hemisphere more, which helps them build a consistent chain of actions on the way to the goal. Many men like to think simply for the sake of the process itself, for the sake of distraction from pressing matters, which is why there are so many philosophers among the stronger half of humanity.

In women, the right hemisphere, which is responsible for imaginative and multitasking thinking, is more actively involved. A woman, as most experts think, will not think exclusively about how to submit the annual report - she will have time to “figure out” what shoes she should buy for the party and what to feed her husband in the evening. It is not difficult for her to simultaneously listen to the news on the radio, chat with a friend and look after the child. Ladies do not like to develop step-by-step instructions, but see the picture “as a whole.” Therefore, women's actions often seem inconsistent, completely unrelated to each other.

A few more features of female thinking:

• Scientists think that women switch faster from the right hemisphere to the left. As a result, there is a constant sharp transition from logic to emotions and back. By the way, this feature can be turned to your advantage: if a girl goes into conflict, it is enough to simply kiss her unexpectedly or give her a bouquet of flowers - and she will “melt”.
• A woman, as a homemaker, always looks at the future and evaluates information with an eye to the future.
• Women have better developed intuition. They can quickly make the right spiritual decisions in a complex, ambiguous environment, but they are not always able to offer clear arguments in favor of these decisions.

Who is smarter - men or women?

For many centuries, the world has been dominated by the dogma that men are smarter than women. There are still dozens of scientific theories in use that explain this difference in intellectual development.

Some features of women's perception and thinking are so obvious that even the most stubborn skeptics cannot deny them. For example, tests confirm that women cope well with tasks that involve fine motor skills of the hands; they are more receptive to sign information. Typically, women can quickly list objects of the same category or name words that begin with the same letter.

However, men, for the most part, have more developed spatial thinking. Complex mathematical or spatial calculations are their strong point. Men perform better on almost any test that requires the use of three-dimensional thinking.

The most popular theory that tries to explain these differences insists that it all comes down to different quantitative ratios of white and gray matter in the brains of men and women. Gray matter, which is responsible for processing information and building logical connections, is five to six times larger in men. But white matter, which is responsible for the interaction between different parts of the brain, is greater in women. Perhaps it is this feature of the female brain that contributes to the spread of the stereotype about multitasking female thinking.

The dogma about the mental superiority of men is refuted by the results of one interesting scientific study by New Zealand scientists. This study, published in the summer of 2012, showed that men and women are intellectually equal, and often women are even smarter. This conclusion was confirmed by numerous IQ tests conducted over several years in different countries of the world.

Previously, women were slightly behind men in the development of intellectual abilities, experts emphasize. But recently this gap has disappeared. There may be several reasons for this, but one of the main ones is that women were able to quickly adapt to the innovations that the modern dynamic world throws at us in huge quantities. Today, women have to establish a family life and build a career; they have a large number of opportunities for self-realization. All this contributes to enhanced brain development.

In turn, many scientists persistently continue to deny gender stereotypes. Yes, girls pay attention to small details more often, show excellent results in verbal tests, and boys are better at imagining an object in three dimensions. But the point may not be in the structure of their brain, but simply in their upbringing. Boys often spend a lot of time outside, playing group sports games (which develop spatial orientation). Girls, on the other hand, generally spend more time at home, communicating with relatives, which contributes to the development of verbal skills. Of course, experts emphasize, biological determinism cannot be completely denied, but it is insignificant compared to how plastic and universal our brain is.

Undoubtedly, men and women are very different from each other in physical strength, brain activity, emotions... And these differences are not only on a genetic basis, but also in socio-historical development. For a long time, men and women had different rights, different social roles and responsibilities.

What's the difference?

Let's look at the main differences between a man and a woman.

Thinking process. Women always think specifically, with all the details and details, and often use intuition in this matter. And men, on the contrary, think logically and rationally, abstractly and spatially. At the same time, the weaker sex devotes its thoughts to family and relationships with relatives, while the stronger sex often thinks about career, self-realization and work. Therefore, you should not quarrel because the husband talks about work, and the wife suddenly decides to go for a ride and visit relatives.

Interests. Women are most interested in love, relationships between people, communication and mutual understanding. And men are passionate about competition, leadership and the opportunity to show their abilities. This is why men love football and hockey so much, and women can endlessly watch melodramas, even if they are all similar to each other.

Capabilities . The fair half of humanity has developed verbal abilities, while the strong half has developed analytical abilities. It is not surprising that women love to chat with their friends on the phone, while men prefer to learn news from newspapers and the Internet.

Critical situations. Since female thinking is focused on details, it cannot quickly react in critical situations. It slows down. But a man quickly reacts to an event and instantly mobilizes, ready to solve all problems here and now. This is why a man can quickly fall in love and quickly cool down, when a woman needs long courtship, and after breaking up she cannot cool down her feelings for a long time.

Mind . A man thinks and looks for a solution himself, and this is called mind. A woman tries to get the same result at minimal cost, and this is called cunning. The weaker sex prefers not to use their minds so often, but this does not mean that they are stupider than the stronger half of humanity.

Communication . Men and women behave differently in a new team. If a woman devotes more time to strengthening her connections and establishing relationships, then a man will do everything to simply be the first in this team.

Women have succumbed to men under the pressure of superior force, but they inflict painful retaliatory blows, the main of which is to expose the man to ridicule.

Erich Fromm

About the notorious female talkativeness

Men think mostly silently, women prefer to think out loud. It turns out there are reasons for this that are deeper than imagined.

Dr. Jenny Harest and her colleagues from the University of Sydney, Australia, found that women's tendency to chat is explained by features of female anatomy: in women, the area of ​​the brain that controls speech is 20% larger than in men.

This also explains women’s better abilities in languages, their skill in making contacts (in particular, business ones) and better memorization of what was said: “A woman can forgive an insult, but she will never forget it.”

The sociability of women, combined with a critical attitude towards other representatives of their sex, sometimes plays a cruel joke on them:
She managed to strike up a conversation at an official reception with the right person, but the conversation did not go well. To avoid a prolonged pause, the woman said:

- Look at this lady with polka dots, how ridiculous she looks!
- This is my wife.

Many men have a hard time with women's verbosity, considering it just talkativeness. In many “male” jokes, this feminine quality is ridiculed. Here are three examples:

“Two prisoners had to sit in the same cell for 10 years. For good behavior they were released six months early. Outside the prison gates they talked for another half hour.”

“Ivanov and his wife came to the doctor. He gave the woman a thermometer and suggested holding it on her cheek:
- Now don’t open your mouth for five minutes! - he warned the woman.

Ivanov looked carefully at the doctor, then at his wife with a thermometer in her mouth and whispered in the doctor’s ear:
“Doctor, how much can you give me this thing for?”

“I heard that before you went to work at the drama theater, your wife danced in ballet?

- Yes, and not bad. But it was so hard for her not to say a word the whole evening.”

Women's logic is a subject of study that cannot be compared with anything. Fortunately, there is some very thorough work that we follow in this and other sections of this chapter.

The term “feminine principles” is conditional, since every woman has her own principles, known only to her. She may not be aware of them, but she still uses them effectively, that is, we are talking, rather, not about uniform principles, but about some priorities and preferences.

Uncertainty in a woman's statements

One of the core principles of female logic is the principle of uncertainty. Uncertainty in women's logic is a convention raised to an absolute.

A manifestation of the uncertainty principle are words such as “I agree, but on condition...”, “yes, but...”, “possibly, of course, only...”. The apotheosis of this is the expression “well, I don’t know...”.

This phrase often crowns a conversation, dialogue or reasoning. In its tone there is a note of irritation, dissatisfaction, evaluation, and a strong-willed emphasis on suppressing attempts to further discuss this topic. The meaning of this expression may implicitly include the following: “Do as you know” (“I wash my hands”), “It’s up to you to decide (and answer for you)”, “You disagree with me only out of stubbornness (pride, stupidity) "etc.

Relativity of women's assessments

In a conversation like “Don’t compare, please, I’m doing this for the good of the family (children, your good...),” the categorical demand “don’t compare” actually acts as a purely comparative component.

Always understanding that word and deed are, as they say in Odessa, two big differences, a woman allows a man to persist in something. This plan includes two goals. The first is not to start a domestic war over a worthless reason, reserving it for a more suitable occasion (in which the missed incident will certainly be remembered, but in other evaluative categories). The second is to be able to say in the end: “Well, I told you…” And I really did say it... In general, the indicated turn is, in its evaluative essence, an absolutely win-win option in any development of events.

Treating a man like a big child, a woman is prone to concessions and compromises, without deviating one iota from the fact that her own rating scale is the only correct one. This is not even subject to discussion (there are two opinions - it’s true and it’s wrong).

Persistence in not admitting guilt

It is a rare case, an exception to the rule, for a woman herself, without any external pressure, to self-critically say: “Unfortunately, I was wrong about this,” or “As further showed, you turned out to be closer to the truth.” This is simply impossible. And not at all because self-criticism is less inherent in women than in men. Quite the contrary. Men are more likely to choke with delight and self-delusion.

Women's persistence in not admitting guilt is also a relative category. The guilt or wrong in question is not simply a woman's mistake, omission or thoughtless act. This is always a certain guarantee in her relationship with a man. And to admit that he was wrong means to give him big trump cards in the subsequent positional struggle. But a woman cannot do this. Thus, a woman usually does not admit that she is wrong purely for strategic reasons.

Usually in such delicate situations, well aware that she is wrong, a woman does not seek to fight for positions that have already been lost. She either remains vaguely silent and avoids everything that concerns this sensitive issue, and if she is forced to speak, she expresses herself in such a vague form that it is unclear who is right and who is wrong. And if the woman’s fault emerges, then in the end the culprit still turns out to be... of course, the man.

“A woman can sometimes confess her sins, but I have never known one who would confess her weaknesses.”
Bernard Shaw

Uncertainty of premises

A woman understands perfectly well that to define something means to set such a range of values ​​of what is being defined, which does not change in the future. However, a woman prefers not to base her messages on something unchangeable that does not depend on her. She herself prefers to be independent of any prerequisites. The easiest way to do this is to re-form the messages each time, since this is more profitable in a changed situation. And this is done with the most charming spontaneity and ease. Therefore, uncertainty is an expression of the incompatibility of female logic with coercion.

Uncertainty characterizes the absence of sharp edges. This gives great room for maneuver. Uncertainty is the most important basis of female mystery and mystery. By saying “yes” or “no”, a woman reveals her attitude to the subject. An expression of uncertainty, such as “maybe,” can mean both and is not a revealing factor.

A man seeking a meeting with a woman, hearing “maybe,” receives hope (which the woman is interested in), but this does not deprive her of freedom to further action.

Polysemy

If in the Gospel parable “Either “yes” or “no”, and anything beyond that comes from the evil one”, draw the line after the word “no”, then all that remains on the left is male logic, and what appears on the right is masculine logic. - female. Maybe that’s why women believe that their logic is right in relation to men’s?

If a woman is forced to show any certainty, she will express it approximately in the following form: “Rather, neither “yes” nor “no” than either “yes” or “no.” But she obviously won’t say that either. Even this measure of convention is too straightforward. Intuitively, she will most likely lean toward an expression associated with an indefinite modality like “maybe,” but necessarily uttered in a tone of great doubt, so that in the end it will not be clear: it may or may not be (or even it cannot be) ?

In general, in a woman’s arsenal, expressions like “maybe” are key.
Between the solid “yes” and “no” lies a whole spectrum of different semitones: “almost yes”, “rather yes than no”, “neither yes nor no”, “rather no than yes”, “almost no”.

And all this multicolor turns out to be at the mercy of the feminine “maybe.” Here we see another manifestation of the three principles of masculine and feminine mentioned in 1.4: he is a point (concentration), she is space (filling). “Yes” (or “no”) is a dot, “maybe” is a whole space of halftones.

The same thing, but in different mouths...

The male “maybe” is much closer to a form of refusal, to denial, to an expression of annoyance and irritation... Already simple everyday examples convince us of this. So, if a wife reminds her husband of the need to do something, and he replies: “Okay, okay, maybe next week...”, then nine out of ten women will understand that this means an annoyed dismissal. A woman’s “maybe,” on the contrary, can promise a lot...

Let's compare the male and female “no”. The male “no” is close in meaning to what the hero of Chekhov’s story “Letter to a Learned Neighbor,” retired lieutenant Vasily Semi-Bulatov, who lived in the village of Bliny-Sedeny, said: “This cannot happen, because this can never happen.” .

Women's negativity has a very specific character. And this is understandable. In the eternal competition of life, a woman cannot say “no” and cut off like a knife. It would simply be thoughtless. The woman refuses, but always leaves hope, the possibility of consent. But agreement only with those who show the necessary measure of tolerance and understanding.

And there is no greater disappointment for a woman in a man than this situation when, after refusal, the man stops all attempts to achieve consent. For a woman, such a man is a completely finished person.

The man and woman met many years later.
- Why did you refuse me then?
- Because you weren't persistent enough.

By its nature, a woman’s “no” is selective, testing and evaluative. By saying “no”, a woman has the opportunity to promise, but on a competitive, alternative basis...

A woman's "maybe" is a playful, flirtatious, and promising "yes."

The practicality of female logic

The practicality of female logic is determined by the very nature of women. Practicality is the quality that nature (or God) endowed a woman with, destining her to take care of procreation and the hearth. Her mistakes are too costly. This different attitude towards mistakes has become firmly established in the psychology of gender. Even folk sayings and sayings reflect this, for example: “The husband’s sin remains behind the threshold, but the wife carries everything into the house.”

A woman's mistake is a more serious fact. Too many people often have to pay for it... Therefore, practicality is a very definite guarantee of well-being and security, a weapon against deception.

One of the greats said that anyone can be deceived: a politician and a soldier, a scientist and a poet. It is impossible to deceive only a housewife. Naturally, we do not equate a housewife with a woman. But, as the Holy Scripture says, let the one who proves that a housewife is not a woman throw the first stone at me...

Compulsion to action

It is preferable for a woman not to make a decision herself, but to push a man to make a decision and take an action that is desirable for her.

This is an impeccable tactic from a practical point of view. In this case, all responsibility rests with the man, and no matter the outcome, the woman wins.

Forcing a man to act is very clearly visible in “women’s” songs. For example:

“Oh, Morozov, do you hear, Morozov,
Marry yourself to me!”

Brilliant design! Or here's another:

I won’t believe anyone that you love someone else,
Come on a date and don't bother me.
Will you really put out the light in my heart?
Can't you find a path to me?

Lines two, three and four contain a push towards the man’s desired actions for the songbird, supported by reproaches.

Don't waste precious minutes,
Make an appointment soon
And keep in mind that many others
People are paying attention to me!

The first two lines contain not only the instruction, but also the urgency of its execution. The final lines present pressure in the form of a hidden threat.
There are many similar examples. After all, the peculiarities of female thinking are so natural for women that they permeate everything that comes from them.

The husband is a scientist, in order not to bother himself with dacha worries, fulfilling his wife’s request to buy a dacha, he set one condition: “At the dacha, you are the owner, I am the auxiliary worker, I will do whatever you say.” From time to time he now hears his wife's reproaches.

In this post I will try to combine some data from the psychology of gender with neurophysiology.

Left hemisphere- abstract, analytical, verbal, discrete thinking, logic.
Right hemisphere- spatial-figurative, synthetic, non-verbal, simultaneous (simultaneous), associative thinking, intuition.

The features of each type of thinking are described by me in, conventionally designated by me as “logic” and “mysticism”.

But let's get back to the picture. Please note that women have many, many connections between the hemispheres. This shows that it is common for a woman to combine logic and intuition. In men, on the contrary, information circulates almost separately in the left and right hemispheres. A man uses logic and intuition separately.

This difference is at the root of many misunderstandings between the sexes. For example, a man in love loses the ability to think critically, while a woman (partially) retains her criticality. On the other hand, men show themselves better in cold analysis; it is difficult for women to judge impartially. A woman thinks and feels at the same time, a man thinks and feels separately.

In solving any somewhat complex task, both hemispheres are involved. But in a man they are more isolated from each other. Programmers and evolutionists in such cases recall the bottleneck problem. The flow of information is limited by the width of the “neck of the bottle” - the connections connecting the right and left hemispheres. From here follows the property of male intellect - his single-tasking. A man solves problems one by one, one after another, his thinking is consistent.

In a woman, both hemispheres are perfectly connected, which means the bottle has a wide neck, which allows the woman to be multitasking. A woman can think and do many things at the same time, which a man is not capable of. This is why the “female logic” technique described in leads men to a dead end. Multitasking allows a woman to be more balanced And universal.

It would seem great, a lot to do, balance, versatility, but every coin has a downside. “Jack of all trades, master of none,” the English say in such cases. “And the Swede and the reaper and the trumpet player” will not be the best tailor, reaper or musician. The ability to do many things at the same time leads to the fact that women do not reach the peak of excellence in each individual case. Universality comes at the cost of not having the benefits of specialization.

So, single-tasking is cooler? No, of course not. Men pay for excellence in one matter with imbalance and mediocrity in other matters. . If this skill gives him success, everything is great. What if he chose the wrong thing? Then he suffers a failure that the woman never dreamed of. Men “put their eggs in one basket” and sometimes leave them soft-boiled. Single-tasking gives high results with high risks, multitasking gives low results but low risks. The woman hedges her bets, the man goes all-in. For every winning man there is a loser man; a woman prefers to occupy an intermediate position.

The above does not mean that a man cannot be a multitasker, and a woman cannot be a single tasker. They can only be in different ways. A man can do many small things, one at a time. A woman can break a big matter into many small matters and solve them in parallel. Understanding the weaknesses of your thinking allows you to overcome these weaknesses.

Parallelism and single-tasking leads to different assessment methods. A man takes more risks when he focuses on one thing, so it’s more important to him prioritize. He must know which matters are important and which are secondary; he may simply “miss” something serious. A woman switches quickly and doesn’t yawn, so she worries less about priorities. If a man assigns, say, 50, 20, 10 points in importance to his affairs, then a woman assigns one point to each of her affairs. When you're juggling ten things, each one is equally important. Therefore, from a man’s point of view, a woman is too superficial about serious issues and pays too much attention to trifles.

Single-tasking and parallelism leads to a lot of misunderstandings between the sexes. For example, the classic “Well, I told you so!” problem. A woman says something under the arm of a man and he happily ignores everything, as he is busy with something else. The woman is offended because she thinks that the man did it out of spite, she herself doesn’t miss anything, she doesn’t have the problem of speaking “at hand”.

Let's look at the picture again and notice that women, generally speaking, have more connections. This indicates that white matter, that is, connections, plays a more important role in a woman’s thinking. Her thinking is generally more associative. If for a man information is divided into separate “boxes”, for a woman everything is connected into one giant network of associations. This is where a woman’s ability to illogically jump from topic to topic arises. Associations instead of logical connections are the second component of the phenomenon feminine logic(the first one is described). What it lacks in confusion, logic and association makes up for in its advantages - good memory(especially to details) and increased speed of thinking(associative thinking is faster than logical thinking). The latter quality, however, can be expressed in rash actions. Association also makes women more socially developed.

Signs of a bias towards the associative way of thinking are described.
Signs of bias in the logical direction -

The difference in associativity leads to the fact that men and women resolve stressful situations differently. If a man tends to withdraw, “clear his head,” “go into his cave,” then a woman needs to speak out. The meaning of clearing the head for a man is to clear the RAM for the next task - he closes one box and opens another. For a woman, everything is connected to everything, she does not need to close anything, she needs, on the contrary, to activate all associations at once in order to find a solution. Outwardly, this is expressed in “verbal diarrhea,” which is abnormal from a man’s point of view - intense and chaotic talking with switching from topic to topic. At these moments, a woman does not expect a solution from a man (as many men mistakenly think), she speaks out her problems to generate her own solution. Hence the eternal misunderstanding in solving family problems. The man wants to “unwind”, suggests “not to think about it,” but the woman wants to “sit down and talk.”

Another point that I have not touched on before is the different localization of connections in the brains of men and women. Pay attention to the diagram - a man has more connections in the back of the brain - this is an indicator developed spatial thinking and coordination. Men are better at navigating the terrain, and they move “smarter.” In women, there are active connections in the front part of the brain, where the speech centers are located. This is an indicator of high language capabilities. It has been shown that girls from an early age demonstrate a high level of speech activity; they use more complex grammar in sentences than boys. Side effect of active speech centers - talkativeness(from a man's point of view). The isolation of the hemispheres of a man’s brain affects his speech abilities - he becomes tongue-tied when dealing with emotions.

So, to summarize the above:

The female brain is highly associative, using both hemispheres, which allows her to multitask:

Advantages of female thinking:
1. ability to cope with a large number of things at the same time
2. balance between different activities
3. versatility
4. low risk of failure in each case
5. good memory
6. quick thinking
7. the ability to combine logical thinking with emotions
8. developed speech
9. social development

Disadvantages of female thinking:
1. in single, very complex tasks, all brain resources are not used (focus problem).
2. problems reaching peak performance
3. replacement of logical reasoning with associations
4. thoughtlessness of actions
5. problem with abstraction, it is difficult to separate logic from emotions
6. superficiality in serious matters, seriousness in trifles

The male brain is low associative, the hemispheres are separated, single-tasking thinking.

Advantages of masculine thinking:
1. the ability to do one thing very well, the ability to focus
2. achieving peak performance
3. the ability to think logically without mixing associations
4. the ability to think impartially and self-critically, reflecting on actions
5. spatial thinking
6. prioritization
7. developed abstract thinking
8. ability to remember only important things
9. good coordination of movements

Disadvantages of male thinking:
1. it is difficult to cope with many tasks of equal importance
2. reaching the peak of mediocrity
3. low emotional intelligence (solved only if a man focuses)
4. slowness of decision-making due to thinking about actions
5. specialization in useless activities, high risk of failure
6. tongue-tied in emotions
7. general imbalance, constantly switching between extremes, cold analysis and recklessness
8. poor memory, inattention to detail

Both thinking strategies have the right to exist, none of them is better than the other, they complement each other. Where a man screws up, a woman helps out and vice versa. For example, a woman is able to notice problems in time and redirect a man to them. The man, in turn, helps the woman solve the few but difficult tasks in her life that she herself cannot cope with.

The adaptability of the human brain allows us to learn both ways of thinking. This approach, which I called hybrid thinking, described in. Those who have mastered this type of thinking, in my opinion, receive the maximum benefit of a combination of balance and imbalance.

But this is not all the differences between male and female thinking. In the next note, I will reveal the evolutionary reason for the differences in the structure of the brain and add some other features of female and male thinking and behavior and, finally, put an end to this issue.

Women are much more complex than men. For men everything is simple, for women it is complicated. Do you know why?

Because we have completely different biological structures of the brain. I'll start with the men.

The male brain is a device in which perfect order reigns. We have everything laid out in separate boxes.

Sex is in one “box,” sports is in another, work is in a third. We have lots of drawers for literally everything. We have a “box” for the car, a “box” for money, and a “box” where thoughts about work are stored. There is a box where thoughts about you women are kept. There is a separate box for children. A separate box is thoughts about the mother. She's out there somewhere, in the basement.

We always put everything in these boxes. And there is one rule: while you are raking one box, you cannot touch the others. If we are discussing one specific issue, we simply reach for the box where we have all the “documents” on it. This is why we only discuss specific issues: we are very careful about the contents of those boxes that are not currently discussed.

It's different with women's brains. The female brain is a big ball, all wrapped in thinking “wire”.

And everything in it is connected to everything. Money is connected to the car, the car is connected to work, the children are connected to the mother, the mother is connected to the grandmother, and the grandmother is also necessarily “connected” to something. As a result, women's thought process is like a broadband highway on which everything is controlled by one form of energy - emotions.

This is why women tend to remember everything. Because if you take any event from your life and connect it to emotions, it will remain in your memory forever.

Why is it different for men? Because first of all, we often forget to reorganize our boxes. Secondly, we are almost emotionless creatures. Frankly speaking, in general, we don’t really care about anything. And women, as a rule, take care of everything at once. They just love this process.

Men also have a “box” in their brains that most women are unaware of. This is an empty box.

This is our favorite box. If a man has a chance to do this, he always pulls her out of his subconscious. What's better than having your brain completely empty for a few hours? That's why we love fishing so much.

And in fact, what I’m talking about here has been scientifically confirmed. A few years ago, the University of Pennsylvania conducted a study and found that men can actually switch off, not think about anything, and still breathe. Unlike women. They don't have that skill.

A woman's mind never stops. They can't just get a box of nothing. This, of course, drives them crazy. And makes them feel especially irritated when they see a man who does nothing.