Do you think there are - on average - intellectual differences between men and women

[Megabyte]

I think men and women are equally stupid.

i agree 100%

 

[History_Buff]

Men and women tend to think differently; it's just the way our brains are wired together. What causes it is beyond me, but the fact that men tend to perform better at math, while women are better at the arts in general. But there's also the argument that that has more to do with the way we were taught in primary school than any genetic hard wiring, and exceptions on many sides. I know many women who are fantastic engineers.

I would say 'intelligence' is far more dependent upon your upbringing and individual genetic variation than your gender.

 

[Eli]

I remember reading that women have higher average IQ scores, at the price of a lower standard deviation. This explains the enormous preponderance of men at the highest points of achievement and the higher average test grades girls tend to get in school.

I'll look for substantiation.

 

[Erik Mesoy]

If you roll 3 billion dice twice you will get almost exactly the same number.

I don't see how that's relevant.

By my calculations, these are the probabilities for sets of 1, 2 and 3 dice coming up the same:
1/6
176/1296 (ca 1/7.3)
3388/46656 (ca 1/13.8)
4 dice is more than I can work out on a Post-It, which is all the paper I have just now. 3 billion is well beyond my capability, but the pattern is clear. These equivalencies are sums of squares of probabilities as a fraction of squares of sums, so they'll keep shrinking in ratio.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

If you roll 3 billion dice twice you will get almost exactly the same number.

"Almost exactly".

I think I see what you mean though. When rolling 3 billion dice, the average will probably be closer to 3.5 than when you roll 2 dice. So when you roll 3 billion of them twice the average will be more similar than it would be when you roll 2 dice twice?

 

[obliterate]

Men are better are maths and think more logically and science while women are better at art and crap like that, they are also more emotional. Men are smarter (Cause I don't rate art and music stuff).

 

[Sharwood]

EDIT: ^^^ I'm sending that to every girlfriend you ever have. Don't you know that female arts student put out more than anyone else?

From what I remember, studies have shown that men really are better at reading maps (spatial) and women are better at picking up languages (conceptual), as several others have already said. Again, how much of this is biological and how much is cultural, I don't know, but for the time being, I have to go with the "in different ways" approach.

 

[Arwon]

Another key thing is that we're talking overlapping, slightly differentiated bell curves here, not "all men being better than all women".

There's a great deal more overlap than difference even in those measures such as spatial cognition and languages where many studies claim a statistical difference.

 

[Eli]

Ok. After some quick googling the data is as follows:

Males may or may not have slightly higher average IQs than females. If they do, the difference is around 3-5 points. There are conflicting research results on this issue.

Males do have a higher standard deviation.

 

[Mise]

There are differences, but none of them are significant enough for me to vote the 3rd option.

 

[Ecofarm]

Any intellectual differences that exist between an individual man and woman are the result of:

1. Genetics that have nothing to do with sex (IQ).
2. Social Engineering.
3. Personal interests.

The Y chromosome does not have bonus IQ genes attached to it.

Males may or may not have slightly higher average IQs than females. If they do, the difference is around 3-5 points. There are conflicting research results on this issue.

Any such results are the result of social engineering and cooresponding bias (however unintentional it may be) in the exam. The same is true for any slight differences between races.

 

[Sharwood]

The Y chromosome does not have bonus IQ genes attached to it.

It does give one an extra organ with which to think though. And many men do, quite often.

 

[Ecofarm]

It's true. The Y chromosome reduces intellect.

Edit: Although technically we don't have an extra organ, just a larger one with an extra function. We both have nads. They actually have the extra organ(s), vag and uterus.

 

[obliterate]

EDIT: ^^^ I'm sending that to every girlfriend you ever have. Don't you know that female arts student put out more than anyone else?

From what I remember, studies have shown that men really are better at reading maps (spatial) and women are better at picking up languages (conceptual), as several others have already said. Again, how much of this is biological and how much is cultural, I don't know, but for the time being, I have to go with the "in different ways" approach.

What about concept maps?

 

[Yeekim]

In my experience, men are better at memorizing facts (History, Math, etc.) while women are better at concepts (grammar, foreign language, etc.)

My experience would be the opposite: back in my days, girls would frequently cram their heads full of facts but often fail badly when asked to pull out conclusions or generalizations based on them...

 

[Jazzmail]

The male sex includes both more geniuses and more retards. Men are the playthings of natural selection. Women are the safe bet.

Women tend more to the average than men do and since average is good enough to make the cut in schools nowadays, female students perform better on average.
The ******** males fail. The non-social genius types may also fail. The really smart guys get grouped with the average guys. This has contributed to the current idea that women are smarter and also why in the past people used the think the other way around.

Women are also more social than men and social contacts can easily make up for lack in other areas. Strength is nolonger important, so women will on average outperform men in civilized society.

 

[aneeshm]

Though the average IQs of the genders are the same, men tend to have a slightly higher standard deviation. What this means that the "spread" of IQ is higher in men - a man is more prone to being either a genius or a fool, whereas the IQs of women cluster closer to the mean.


This has some rather insidious effects on things like statistics relating to marks and achievement.


For instance, in the world of real achievement - the real world - the top few positions in most fields tend to be dominated by men, simply because of the higher deviation and thus higher incidence of high-achieving men. Similarly, so is the low end of the chain dominated by men.

In the academic world, however, a different dynamic is evident. In a class of a hundred people, imagine that the average women get is X. If overall achievement were to be considered, then men would also score X. However, the problem that occurs is that generally, the low-scoring men manage to pull down the average, but the high-scoring men can't compensate, because it's not possible to get more than a hundred per cent. In effect, the top end of the male spectrum is essentially cut off from being considered, because the test isn't that tough.

So a feminist looking at the data would find it easy to misinterpret it. First, she looks at academic scores and sees that women have an advantage, and feels all warm and fuzzy inside. Then, she looks at the real world and sees that men dominate the top echelons of almost all major fields, is (predictably) outraged, and (pardonably) comes to the (erroneous) conclusion that there is a vast male cultural conspiracy in the real world to keep women down. There is nothing of the sort, it's simply a consequence of the way nature rolls her dice.

A counter-question could be raised by this hypothetical feminist, in the form of the claim that if men were really equal to women, then in examinations which were hard enough to test for the entire spectrum of mental abilities, then the test results should mirror what happens in the real world.

And that is exactly what happens. The competitive examinations in India for entrance to engineering colleges, the two most prestigious being the IIT-JEE and the AIEEE, consistently show men completely outperforming women at the high end. The IITs are old-school male bastions, and probably will remain so for the foreseeable future, because only the the extreme outliers - the top scorers on the tests - are allowed entry, and there are more than a hundred candidates for every seat.

 

[~Corsair#01~]

I believe that men are more susceptible to rebellious and rule-breaking behaviour as they are more hierarchy-oriented. Women don't seem to have the drive to dominate to the same extent as we do. All of this means that men as a whole are more prone to the extremes of good and evil, and women to more moderate behaviour. Male genuises imo will always be more common than female genuises, while they will also be the main offenders in any crime you care to mention as well. This increased polarisation of the male gender can be seen everywhere from history books to test scores in schools.

Females may be smarter on average, but being above average doesn't really mean anything given that "average" is a pathetic standard to set yourself by.

 

[Masquerouge]

I don't think that men are better at maths/science than women.

I do however think that men are better at 3D orientation than women, for instance.

But it's really hard to separate the social factors from the genetic ones.

 

[Godwynn]

I do however think that men are better at 3D orientation than women, for instance.

That reminds me, men are better at driving.

I don't mean adolescent boys, I mean adult men.