Men Smarter than Women, Scientist Claims

[Wang]

Men Smarter than Women, Scientist Claims

By Jeanna Bryner
LiveScience Staff Writer
posted: 08 September 2006
02:39 pm ET

Men are smarter than women, according to a controversial new study that adds another cinder to the fiery debate over whether gender impacts general intelligence.

"For 100 years there's been a consensus among psychologists that there is no sex difference in intelligence," said J. Philippe Rushton, a psychologist at the University of Western Ontario, Canada.

Recent studies, however, have raised questions about the validity of this claim, he said. One such study showed that men have larger brains than women, a 100 gram difference after correcting for body size. Rushton found similar results in a study of gender and brain size.

To determine if there was a link between gender and intelligence, and perhaps between brain size and intelligence, Rushton and a colleague analyzed the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) scores from 100,000 17- and 18-year-olds.

G-factor

When Rushton and colleagues weighted each SAT question by an established general intelligence factor called the g-factor, they discovered that males surpassed females by an average of 3.6 IQ points.

The g-factor works like this. "If I tell you the last four digits of my telephone number and ask you to repeat them back to me, that's a low g-loaded memory test," Rushton explained. "But if I then ask you to repeat them back to me in the reverse order, that suddenly requires a tremendous amount more cognitive processing. It is a very high loaded g-item.”

So the g-factor "is really the active ingredient of the test," Rushton said. "It's the single best, most predictive part of the test."

Rushton suspects that the results are due to males having more brain tissue than females on average. "It's a very reasonable hypothesis that you just need more brain tissue dedicated to processing high ‘g' information," Rushton said.

The study, which Rushton co-wrote with Douglas Jackson, also of the University of Western Ontario, is detailed in the current issue of the journal Intelligence.

You can read the full article here.


Not only are men's brains larger on average compared to females, but also males have to rely more on their intelligence as opposed to women in their lives which is one of the main reasons why men are smarter then women.

Why? Because it’s more important for males to achieve things in life. Men need to attain certain higher social, economic levels in their lives in order to become attractive enough to mate with. Since looks are less important in regards to males. It's more about status, the higher status the male is the more desirable he becomes.

In contrast, women who are beautiful enough can just use her beauty to get a man to love her and take care of her. Males look at women more in terms of physical attributes. The more beautiful, healthier women are the better candidates they are to produce the male's babies.

[Maciamo]

This scientist visibly isn't very smart. Men are better at certain things like logical thinking, acquisition of vocabulary, geometry, spatial abilities or complex reasoning, while women are better at communication, arithmetic, multi-tasking, noticing details, etc. It may be true that men manage to get higher scores in IQ tests than women because it tests the part they are good at (logic, spatial abilities). It is true that mean have bigger brains in average. It is true that 99% of the great scientists, artists, classical composers, etc. were men. But women make better coordinators, politicians or even managers (depends on the circumstances).

[misa.j]

Wow, men are smarter than women, eh? I agree with Maciamo. It's not always the case. My male co-workers don't fit in that theory.

There are about 45,000 more men than women in the world by 2000, though.
http://www.un.org/esa/population/pub...%20by%20sex%22

[Duo]

Also i think that this study neglects the difference in intelligence. There is no single type of intelligence. Intelligence comes in different forms, there are those who are more adaptable in concrete thinking and those in abstract thoughts.

[Mitsuo]

Gender doesn't make a difference. It just depends on the environment that you grew up in. Like a family that made you study or a family that didn't care if you studied. Also, the previous posts couldn't have said it better.

[Maciamo]

Gender doesn't make a difference. It just depends on the environment that you grew up in. Like a family that made you study or a family that didn't care if you studied. Also, the previous posts couldn't have said it better.

No, hormones do affect the way the brain work, even in animals.

[Kinsao]

Also, the size of the brain doesn't necessarily affect intelligence. Big geniouses don't necessarily have physically bigger brains than other people.

males have to rely more on their intelligence as opposed to women in their lives

I also take issue with this statement. Obviously it varies from person to person, but I think women need to work harder than men to get to the same place (I mean in careers and in business). A woman still has to prove she has an intelligent brain as well as a pretty face.

[Maciamo]

Also, the size of the brain doesn't necessarily affect intelligence. Big geniouses don't necessarily have physically bigger brains than other people.

Obviously, it only indicate the potential. One still has to make use of its potential to become "intelligent" (esp. as far as knowledge is concerned). How would someone know if he/she is meant to become a musical genius if they never have the opportunity to learn an instrument ?

The milieu into which one is born also influenced greatly his/her chances to develop his/her intellectual potential. That is why, even in places where university is completely free and students from poorer families can get grants to pay their food and accommodation (e.g. Belgium and France), there is always less working class people going to university than children of people with "intellectual jobs". Here children of doctors and lawyers almost always go to university, and often at least one of the children studies the same as the parent(s). It is normal. If you have heard about medical/legal terms ever since you were a small child, you have a definite advantage (both in knowledge and psychology) over people who haven't.

[Mitsuo]

No, hormones do affect the way the brain work, even in animals.

I'm not implying that hormones don't affect the way the brain works. I am saying that despite what hormones you have or how much you have. Men and Women can still be at the same intelligence level.

I was just trying to say that environment also plays a role. Or maybe I should say certain influences.

Also your DNA plays a role

[Maciamo]

I'm not implying that hormones don't affect the way the brain works. I am saying that despite what hormones you have or how much you have. Men and Women can still be at the same intelligence level.

Yes, but you are talking as if intelligence was a monolithic thing. There are so many kinds of intelligence, and so many ways to develop each of them according to your environment, opportunities and interests, that I could never say that any two individuals have the "same intelligence". Give me 10 criteria, and tell me which is more intellligent for each (e.g. spatial skills, music, creativity, languages, reasoning, socialising...). Even it is 5-5, they cannot be considered to have the same intelligence, as they might have extremely different abilities that can hardly be compared.