Why can’t men find anything? 👀❌🫣
Is “male refrigerator blindness” real?
Hi NST-world!
Today marks ONE YEAR of NO SUCH THING. When we first started this project we had no idea how it would turn out, and we’re so amped to keep it moving with all of you to keep stoking arguments, asking absurd questions, and more. Here’s to another year, but today, we’ve got a fresh episode for you.
This week, you’ll hear the (extremely valid) testimonies of our wives as we dig into the science behind “male refrigerator blindness.” Why can’t men find things in their own homes? One theory says it goes all the way back to our days as hunter-gatherers. We find out what explains this tragic condition. This might be a good one to listen to before starting on your Thanksgiving tasks tomorrow, but please have patience with the less fridge-aware in your lives.
(Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Others)
Our guest this week is Dr. Albert Postma, leader of the Memory & Space Lab at Utrecht University. He helps us figure out what’s actually going on and what we can try to do to fix it. Scroll down for the object location test and some of the research referenced in the episode. And let us know if you or someone you know suffers from this condition!
Take the object location test yourself
All you need is the pages above, printed out, and a clock of some sort to measure a minute. Do not study the pages before the test. Place the pages face down.
Examine Page 1 for one minute. After, fold the paper and put it aside.
Flip over Page 2 and for one minute, put a cross through all items that were NOT in the original array. After, fold the paper and put it aside.
Flip over Page 3 and for one minute, circle the objects that were in the same place as Page 1, and put a cross through those that have been moved.
Scoring: For Page 2, earn one point for each item correctly crossed, and subtract a point for each item incorrectly crossed. (This is the test of object memory: memory for objects in an array, independent of location.) For Page 3, earn one point for each correct response. (This is the measure for location memory, the locations of objects in an array.)
Study Results: Men’s mean for object memory (Page 2) is 12.25, women’s is 14.15.
For location memory (Page 3), men’s mean is 18.45, to women’s 20.14.
Related links
Dr. Postma’s meta-analysis in Psychonomic Bulletin & Review: Gender differences in object location memory
Funny joke study from the humor edition of Canadian Medical Association Journal: “Refrigerator blindness: selective loss of visual acuity in association with a common foraging behaviour”
To dig further into the above object location test, here’s the full study: Sex Differences in Spatial Abilities: Evolutionary Theory and Data (by Irwin Silveman & Marion Eals)
Have a question you want us to answer? Email us at mannynoahdevan@gmail.com or leave a voicemail at (860) 325-0286.
A note for Spotify people: Make sure you hit the bell button to get notifications when we drop new episodes. No listeners left behind!
And lastly, if you’re a fan of the show, please leave us a five-star rating wherever you listen to podcasts and write a nice review. It really helps a lot. Also, share us with a friend while you’re at it.
Thanks and we’ll be back next Wednesday!