Many Say They Knew It All Along
Neurologists won’t admit it, but just about everyone else will: A new study showing that men listen with only half their brains proves what women have always said--if only men had paid attention.
“Women may use these findings as a wet fish with which to clobber their husbands in the head over the breakfast table saying, ‘See, you schlump? I told you so,’ ” said Los Angeles Library worker Victor Adagio. “But how can we be schlumps if we are merely the sum of our badly wired parts?”
Essentially, researchers at the Indiana University School of Medicine, while refusing to draw conclusions about comprehension, found that men mostly use the left side of their brains when listening. Women, they found, listen with their whole brain.
No surprise there, said Debra Hetrick, 52, coordinator of outdoor education for the Los Angeles Unified School District.
“Everyone knows women are there to listen and be your friend,” she said. “Women listen with more depth and focus than men, and put more of their emotions into what they are hearing. They even visualize what they are listening to.”
Most men, she said, “listen a little bit, then try to problem solve and move on. But, then, there was one guy I knew about 15 years ago who seemed to use both sides of his brains when he listened.”
Kris Gutierrez, a professor of education at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education and Information, suggested another way to frame the findings.
“In addition to all their other excuses, men now have a biological excuse for their behavior in social relations and intimate personal relationships,” she said with a laugh. “One more excuse to get away with what they’ve been doing for ages: not paying attention to us.”
But in a spot survey of men and women Tuesday afternoon, men seemed to take a measure of comfort in what the researchers’ had to say about their seeming inability to listen up.
Asked if men were born to be bad listeners, Adagio mused, “Just trying to answer that question supports the theory, because I’m not paying full attention. How can I if it’s physiologically impossible?”
He added, “To all those researchers in tweed suits puffing on pipes, I say, ‘Let’s not worship the wiring.’ For while wiring is important, there are still mysteries locked in the souls of men and women that they’ll never be able to put a label on.”
Fernando Guerra, director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University, said the new information about brain function “helps me understand why politics is dominated by men.”
“To be a serious candidate in today’s political environment, you need to only listen to half of what is said and repeat half-truths,” he said. “These findings reveal why their excuse is always, ‘I didn’t have complete information, therefore I couldn’t tell the whole truth.’ ”
Silicon Valley entrepreneur and political activist Ron Unz pointed out that “once again, something people have known for a long time has been confirmed by scientific research.”
“A lot of common sense views are being scientifically supported after years of having been suppressed in the name of science,” he said. “Women and men are different. They talk different, and listen different. Ordinary people have always known that.”
Assemblywoman Gloria Romero agreed, to a point.
“Yes, woman are better listeners, but I wouldn’t necessarily say that fact has a biological basis,” she said. “There are social conditioning and cultural learning aspects involved.”
In any case, she added, “As we women continue to be ignored and told that what we are saying isn’t of value, we’ll talk louder and nonstop to get through.”
