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"Male Answer Syndrome"

 
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eldin raigmore
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 16, 2010 4:50 pm    Post subject: "Male Answer Syndrome" Reply with quote

I know for a fact I'm not the only American man who thinks that American men have a tendency to answer any question whether or not they actually know the answer. I don't exclude myself, though I hope I'm more temperate about it than some others I know.

But if you Google for "Male Answer Syndrome" you'll come up with a lot of different copies of the same joke. (I think some of them credit each other and some are simple plagiarism.)

I've got two questions, both serious (well, more serious than those jokes, anyway);

(1) Is this really a tendency among all men, or only among men in American and similar cultures? (Guys, if you don't know, you don't have to answer. OTOH if you know who I should ask, please say so.)

(2) The joke sites seem to imply that this is "male display behavior" -- that men, especially if witnessed by women, and especially especially if asked a question by a woman, feel that they have to answer as well as they can and with as much certainty as they can simulate, in order to prove their masculinity.

I don't think that's true. I think it's more sort of like my own Aspergerish tendency to assume that, if someone asks me a question, they must want an answer.

But I don't really know. Does anyone here? If not, does anyone here know who probably does know?

----
Thanks.
---
Tom
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Tolkien_Freak



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PostPosted: Fri Apr 16, 2010 11:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

(I'm answering! Razz)
I can seriously relate though - I feel weird about leaving posts unanswered here (and then fret about seeming like I reply too much).

Quote:
(1) Is this really a tendency among all men, or only among men in American and similar cultures?

I can't speak for anyone else, but like I said above I comply at least somewhat. I don't know (öü, am I now not supposed to say that? Razz) if it's related to masculinity though.

Quote:
(2) The joke sites seem to imply that this is "male display behavior" -- that men, especially if witnessed by women, and especially especially if asked a question by a woman, feel that they have to answer as well as they can and with as much certainty as they can simulate, in order to prove their masculinity.

I can understand it from a position of trying to impress the woman and not seem unknowledgeable. It would be interesting to know if this occurs in situations where romantic interest is not involved.

Quick question though - is this any question at all, whether directly asked of the man or not; or is it either specifically when he's directly asked or specifically when he's not directly asked? That would most definitely skew the results - I'd answer any question directly asked me (with an 'I don't know' at worst) simply because the asker is waiting for a response from me, but I've never stopped to think about whether or not I compulsively answer open questions (with 'I don't know' or not).

Depending on the answer to the above question, it may just be a politeness response rather than a masculinity one.
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kyonides



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PostPosted: Wed Apr 28, 2010 4:32 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Well, since Costa Rican society is still mainly chauvinistic, I know many would answer someone's questions asap and as accurate as possible... or just tell a lie to put an end to that possible uncomfortable situation. There are some situations where I have noticed this doesn't happen as often as one would think like when you are talking (or a female does) to a farmer or ranger or common construction guy. They would normally admit they don't know something if they can make up a short story regarding your original question.

I'm sure this "male answer syndrome" would actually happen more often if you're at your workplace and a nasty coworker or a boss is asking you a question.

Oh, I forgot to mention there's something else that might also happen here. If you tell some kind of people that you don't know the answer, they don't believe you and demand a straight answer from you (especially if she's a beautiful and / or young girl).

BTW, I noticed people believe what I say if I'm lying but not if I'm telling them the truth.
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eldin raigmore
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 28, 2010 5:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Tolkien_Freak wrote:
Quick question though - is this any question at all, whether directly asked of the man or not; or is it either specifically when he's directly asked or specifically when he's not directly asked? That would most definitely skew the results - I'd answer any question directly asked me (with an 'I don't know' at worst) simply because the asker is waiting for a response from me, but I've never stopped to think about whether or not I compulsively answer open questions (with 'I don't know' or not).
Depending on the answer to the above question, it may just be a politeness response rather than a masculinity one.
I agree and so do several others; that seems to be relevant.
See e.g. http://conworlds.info/cwbb/viewtopic.php?t=1162&highlight=male+syndrome.

kyonides wrote:
Oh, I forgot to mention there's something else that might also happen here. If you tell some kind of people that you don't know the answer, they don't believe you and demand a straight answer from you
That was also mentioned; if you're serving the public your customers might accept any answer, no matter how ill-founded, before they'll accept "I don't know".

kyonides wrote:
BTW, I noticed people believe what I say if I'm lying but not if I'm telling them the truth.
In one class in college I noticed that the less I prepared the more I excited my professor. If I'd actually studied the night before apparently my participation was dull. If I just made up stuff on the fly and randomly chose texts to back it up he was impressed. I hope I didn't learn anything in that class; I'm sure whatever he was teaching us was bad habits.
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Tolkien_Freak



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PostPosted: Wed Apr 28, 2010 9:33 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

eldin raigmore wrote:
I agree and so do several others; that seems to be relevant.
See e.g. http://conworlds.info/cwbb/viewtopic.php?t=1162&highlight=male+syndrome.

Yeah, I think its a fundamentally different question otherwise.
(and my stupid internet security thing blocked that link. <_<)

Quote:
That was also mentioned; if you're serving the public your customers might accept any answer, no matter how ill-founded, before they'll accept "I don't know".

Which is rather unfortunate, considering misinformation is usually worse than a straight lack of information.
(You know that site 'The Customer Is Not Always Right'? I'd bet 40% of it is directly sourced in this phenomenon.)

Quote:
In one class in college I noticed that the less I prepared the more I excited my professor. If I'd actually studied the night before apparently my participation was dull. If I just made up stuff on the fly and randomly chose texts to back it up he was impressed. I hope I didn't learn anything in that class; I'm sure whatever he was teaching us was bad habits.

Thats... somewhat depressing.

I dont typically lie to people so I wouldnt have experience with that myself, but itd be an interesting experiment to try. Maybe its because if youre lying youre actively trying to convince them that youre right, whereas if youre telling the truth youre not bothering to convince them and they dont believe you. (i.e. if youre lying, you subconsciously present the information in a more readily believable manner.)
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