X-Message-Number: 21707
Date: Sat, 03 May 2003 13:25:38 -0400
From: Keith Henson <>
Subject: Re: The Scottsdale Syndorme [Paula Lemler]

>
>From: Paula Lemler <>
>Subject: The Scottsdale Syndorme
>
>      Mark Plus posed an interesting question, in his aptly named
>"Scottsdale Syndrome", regarding the ratio of men to women involved in
>cryonics.  Membership at Alcor is approximately 3.5 males to every
>female.  And it is true that many women are involved only because their
>significant other is.  From giving tours of the facility I can tell you
>that men are more generally prone towards asking technical
>questions.  Often women want to know if they can be in same dewar with
>their spouse and family members.  Then there are females like myself who
>truly are passionate about cryonics.  Personally, the more I learn about
>Alcor and the more people I meet who are cryonicists, the more passionate I
>become.  But how do we convince more women to accept the idea?

It is part of the basic package of human psychology that the men are more 
"risk takers" than women are.  Has to do with the biology of having 
children.  I.e., women didn't have to kill large dangerous animals to 
become parents.  Most of the time, men did.

I know people have been discussing how to get more women and men into 
cryonics for a *long* time.  It is not a well understood problem.  If it is 
to be understood, memetics and evolutionary psychology are the places to start.

>I missed
>the explanation of the Stockholm Syndrome, and would welcome discussion of
>that as well as any ideas relating to the interest of women in cryonics.

There are lots of places where you can read about it on the net, I saw Mike 
Perry posted one of them.  But *why* humans have this trait is (as far as I 
know) only discussed in an article published last fall.

human-nature.com/nibbs/02/cults.html

Or to see the extensive links, try "sex drugs cults henson" in Google.  The 
editor tell me is it one of the more popular articles on the site and is 
getting 2k/month downloads.

Keith Henson

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=21707