And Women are from Venus…
Thank you Dr. Rick Van Sant for this post. He is the Director of the Center for Brains, Learning and Technology at Ferris State University where his team tries to make sense out of the intersections between the latest neurobiological research and our global immersion in technology. Visit his blog at http://brainslearningtechnology.com
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have provided a bit more information in the continuing discussion of brain differences between men and women. Books like MEN ARE FROM MARS- WOMEN ARE FROM VENUS
This study of 32 men and women shows that under moderate stress, “Men responded with increased blood flow to the right prefrontal cortex, responsible for “fight or flight.” Women had increased blood flow to the limbic system, which is also associated with a more nurturing and friendly response.”
The research also showed that the changes to the blood flow in women’s brains lasted much longer than men. Perhaps this gives a biological cause for the observation that women tend to remember emotional episodes for much longer than men?
While interesting, what does this have to do with technology design and use? Given the using technology is inherently stressful for some people, especially when confronted with a problem, one place to apply this information in is the customer service arena. Based on this, men are more likely to engage in solving the problem in a “fight” mode (i.e., problem solving) and will have worked the problem much more extensively before calling technical support. Women on the other hand are likely to be emotionally engaged in their problem with their computers and will need a customer service representative that is alert and empathetic to the emotional implications of having to face this somewhat stressful situation. In this case it is possible that solving the problem will need to be secondary to establishing an empathetic (not sympathetic!) connection before moving on to the actual problem. Maybe the company will lose a little in efficiency, but remember that women are more likely to remember the experience, bad or good, for longer.
Rick is a member of the LEEF 2010 advisory committee. He was also a keynote speaker at LEEF 2009. You can learn more about brain science and games at LEEF 2010 where Rick will lead further discussion. You can register at http://leef2010.net
I’ve noticed the different approach to problem solving between men and women project managers. Men generally put on their “Mr. Fixit” hat and wade in to solve the problem. Women are generally better at listening and discerning. Seems like there should be some middle ground where men and women learn from each other’s strengths in dealing with stress. I wonder how we can use this in designing our training?
Steve:
As your experience confirms, men and women (generally speaking) are hard wired differently. The fact that the systematic brain (usually found in men) and the empathetic brain (usually found in women) process information through different parts of the amygdala mean that given available information, the two genders are going to process the information with a different set of priorities and strategies.
I think that the implications for training start with awareness that we are by and large hardwired differently and that it is not a personal “failing” that the other gender does not “do it” our way. Each set of neural pathways has its downside and upside. For the systematic type of brain, the upside is that the person will likely react quickly using available information to protect and minimize risk while maximizing reward given their perception of the situation. The downside is that they are less likely to be aware of the domain of information that includes human emotions and feelings in the situation. This means that their “efficient” response based on available data may not include the hugely important component of how people will feel about the proposed solution. Efficiency is not necessarily efficacy.
On the other hand, the Empathetic type of brain is, on the upside, likely to gather more information about probable emotional responses, as well as having a better understanding of how the individual will feel about the possible solutions. The downside is that they may become enmeshed in the emotional loop where everyone’s feelings cannot be satisfactorily attended to and therefore become relatively paralyzed about making a decision.
Once teams of men and women can identify which type of brain type they are (and they are not exclusive to gender) then these teams can begin to develop decision strategies that emphasize the strengths of each and minimize the relative downsides.
NOW A CAUTION: Any discussion about gender is fraught with inconsistencies. Hardwired brain types can be signficantly modified with training and experience. It must also be noted that typology is not exclusive, each brain type will have more or less strength in the other areas. So be careful of pigeonholling individuals based on any presumption of brain type.