Modern Wisdom Why Men Are at the Top of Society (and the bottom) - Roy Baumeister - #1075
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Mar 23, 2026 
Roy Baumeister, psychologist and willpower researcher, dives into why men dominate both the top and bottom of society. He explores male risk-taking, competition, and sacrifice, plus why cultures reward dangerous male roles. The conversation also touches on incels, protector instincts, ego depletion, self-control, and how sexual novelty may reshape desire.
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Why Some Intellectual Conflict Turns Into Exclusion
- Baumeister says men more readily enter adversarial collaborations, while women in his colleague's experience avoided setups where they might be directly proven wrong.
- He argues this same preference shows up in academia as exclusion and silencing instead of open contest between opposing views.
Why Trade Offs Matter More Than Easy Fixes
- Baumeister says modern gender discourse ignores trade-offs and treats every difference as a fixable problem instead of asking what costs the fix creates.
- His example is grade inflation: students feel better and institutions look kinder, but incentives collapse and learning falls.
How Equality Talk Can Smuggle In Male Defaults
- Chris Williamson argues equality rhetoric often smuggles in a male default, praising women mainly when they match male-coded roles like hunters or CEOs.
- Baumeister replies hunting carried special protein value and says corporate prestige tracks functions that drive revenue, not internal harmony.
