To find the mind’s construction near the face

Q: This Herald photo caption says “Men with facial hair showed much higher levels of hostile sexism, the study found.”  Did it?

A: No.

Q: Ok, how about the introduction “Bearded men will just have to take it on the chin – they are, apparently, more sexist.”?

A: Not really.

Q:  <sigh> Was this mice again?

A: No, there aren’t good animal models for these variables, as far as I know.  It was people.

Q: University students?

A: No, that’s so five years ago. It was a survey on Amazon’s Mechanical Turk, of men from the US and India.

Q: A representative survey?

A: Well, they paid people US$0.25 to participate, so I’m guessing maybe not. It’s probably better than using an undergraduate psychology class, though.

Q: And they measured sexism and beards over the internet?

A: The sexism was a standard questionnaire, so I think we should accept it. The participants were shown a set of facial hair images and asked to pick what their facial hair looked like. Probably ok, too.

Q: And men with beards were the most sexist?

A: No, men with moustaches, goatees, or soul patches.

Q: Then men with beards?

A: Then ‘light beards’, then light and heavy stubble, then heavy beards, then clean-shaven, then light medium beards.

Q: So it’s not primarily beards, it’s more other sorts of facial hair?

A: That’s what the study suggests

Q: Just like the photo caption?

A: Up to a point. “Much higher” is pushing it.

Q: How much higher?

A: About a third of a point, on a six point scale. About 1.5% of the variation between men could be predicted by their facial hair.

Q: Is there a bar chart, perhaps cut off at some non-zero value?

A: You’ve been reading the Daily Mail, haven’t you? Yes, there is:

Q: That’s not a very big difference, is it?

A: No

Q: So some men with facial hair are probably ok?

A: Probably.