Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta Bias

 I had not heard of these until today, though the concepts of the first ones are familiar to me.

Alpha bias - exaggerating differences between males and females based on stereotypes rather than data

Beta bias - minimising differences between males and females based on stereotyples

Androcentrism is usually discussed with these as a package. This is using males as the test subjects and assuming that the results apply equally to females without checking whether that is, in fact, true.

The concepts seem solid and understandable enough, but I find it amusing that the example taken for alpha bias is Freud's psychoanalytic framework, which is wrong on entirely other grounds, and the example for beta bias is Kohlberg's Theory of Moral Development which is also wrong for reasons unrelated to gender.  The male-female misunderstandings of both do highlight the other problems and cause them to jump off the page, though.

Gamma bias  is a newer idea and suggests that both alpha and beta biases can both be operative at once: societies and even individuals can overemphasise gender stereotypes in some domains and downplay them in others.  This seems likely, and a step up from the usual internet oversimpolifications.  I thought of CS Lewis praising Joy Davidman for her masculine qualities and she retorting immediately whether he would be pleased to have her praise him for his feminine ones. He was man enough to report this to his audience.

Delta bias is also from 2020 and is a further refinement of gamma, of celebrating gender atypical behavior. The discussion at the link is interesting, and a more subtle way of looking at things

Delta bias can be illustrated in terms of the three male archetypes as defined by (M. Seager et al., 2014). Each of these archetypes can be shown in contemporary public media and political discourse to be simultaneously celebrated if exhibited by females but denigrated if exhibited by men.

That is, when females display stereotypical male behavior it is lauded, but when males display it, it is condemned. It is thus not the behavior which we approve of or disapprove of, but which sex is displaying it.  Once one has grasped it, the tendency is to say "Well of course," but a second reflection reveals that we don't acknowledge that often.  It is obvious enough to notice, but not dramatic enough to shout from the rooftops.