Evolutionary psychologist Steve Stewart-Williams has entered the chat with a new book that promises to solve the nature-versus-nurture debate by annoying everyone equally. According to Stewart-Williams, traditionalists exaggerate the natural differences between men and women, while progressives minimize them and blame everything on socialization. His proposed middle ground: a more nuanced, scientifically rigorous public conversation about why and how men and women differ, presumably to guide better policymaking.
Some sex differences are relatively pronounced, he claims, including whether you’re primarily attracted to men or women, upper body strength, height, the likelihood you’ll murder someone, and occupational interests. Others, such as ability in maths or conscientiousness, are much more modest. Stewart-Williams visualizes these differences as two overlapping bell curves. Consider height: the shortest humans are almost all women, the tallest are men, and the average man is taller than the average woman, but there is considerable common ground. Knowing that someone is 5ft 8in won’t enable you to guess with any confidence whether they are a man or a woman. So while the extremes are clear, the middle remains a delightful guessing game.