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Just wanted to jot this down and make some sense of it while it’s top of mind. I was directed to a Psychology Today article about research performed, where the resulting conclusion was this:

“Bright girls believe that their abilities are innate and unchangeable, while bright boys believe that they can develop ability through effort and practice.” Hence, women are often too hard on themselves and “prematurely conclude that they don’t have what it takes to succeed in a particular arena, and give up way too soon.”

This stands out to me because of research on rejection, and the differences between men and women. I might get some of the details wrong, as I came upon this information years ago (Williams and Sommer; Interpersonal Rejection), but it went a little something like this: in a study where a woman was ignored at first, then given a second interaction opportunity, the woman made twice the effort to be accepted, trying again. Whereas when a man was in the identical situation, after his first brush with rejection (being ignored), he called it quits. When another opportunity presented itself for him to interact again, he turned off to it, fiddling with his wallet or phone instead. She doubles her effort, and he gives up straight away.

Interesting that women try to socially compensate, believing they can “fix” things, work hard to be liked, yet they’ll give up if new material seems tricky.

Surprising that an initial rejection doesn’t make the man try harder. He’d rather quit. This seems counter-intuitive, given the whole “men love the chase” thing. Though perhaps they only like the chase once the game has begun, once they’ve determined that it’s something they want. I think that’s the key right there.

And, now, I’m off to read more psychology. Is it just me or does this stuff fascinate everyone?