People derive lots of negative utility from noticing that they are being treated differently according to gender. If you do so, you are unlikely to be able to keep that a secret. Therefore, you should treat both genders the same.
That might be a good reason, but IMHO not good enough to take the option off the table.
Also, it seems to me the opposite may be more true: People like being treated in ways that indicate they are successfully conforming to gender stereotypes. Boys and men like being given the signal that they are masculine; girls and women, that they are feminine.
This is true for some stereotypes but not for others. In addition, people don’t want to feel that you are treating them differently because of their gender, even if they’d feel good if you treated them differently because you noticed their conformance to stereotypes. People will probably be able to tell what you are doing.
People derive lots of negative utility from noticing that they are being treated differently according to gender. If you do so, you are unlikely to be able to keep that a secret. Therefore, you should treat both genders the same.
(Isn’t the mean a least-squares estimator?)
That might be a good reason, but IMHO not good enough to take the option off the table. Also, it seems to me the opposite may be more true: People like being treated in ways that indicate they are successfully conforming to gender stereotypes. Boys and men like being given the signal that they are masculine; girls and women, that they are feminine.
D’oh! Yes. Removed my comment.
This is true for some stereotypes but not for others. In addition, people don’t want to feel that you are treating them differently because of their gender, even if they’d feel good if you treated them differently because you noticed their conformance to stereotypes. People will probably be able to tell what you are doing.