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

[El_Machinae]

Of course there are intellectual differences.

 

[LucyDuke]

There are no good objective measures of any kind of intelligence that could make such a black-and-white comparison meaningful.

Of course there are differences. But anyone who says one sex is "smarter" than the other is deluding themselves.

That said,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUsjR4FSgSQ

That reminds me, men are better at driving.

On average, sure.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I believe I have heard that the portion of the bran handling spacial skills is much more developed in men (although not to the extent as in Neanderthals). That could give men an advantage in geometry (not math in general, but an important branch of it) and coordination (both important in driving), but wouldn't really matter in most areas.

I tend to think most of the differences however are just based on how people are raised.




From what I've heard men tend to be more exceptional, and women more average. That means that there are a lot more really smart and really stupid men who balance each other out, but neither sex has any advantage as a whole.

 

[Erik Mesoy]

But anyone who says one sex is "smarter" than the other is deluding themselves.

Do you even realize how narrow a target such equivalence is, considering the great variance on both sides? I think you're the one deluding yourself.

 

[LucyDuke]

Do you even realize how narrow a target such equivalence is, considering the great variance on both sides? I think you're the one deluding yourself.

I'm not saying they're equal, I'm saying they're incomparable. We can't measure those variations.

 

[mangxema]

In response to Hitro: Well, because there are plenty of statistics out there - Autism is a perfect example so that's why I brought it up.

If I may say something about autism... My brother is severely autistic, and he'll probably never be independent. I on the other hand skipped a grade, graduated HS as valedictorian, and got top honors at one of the country's best engineering schools. That's quite a swing. My parents aren't particularly bright (not intended as an insult, but they aren't geniuses), so i gotta think that that must be that high standard deviation at work.

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.

I get around downtown by referencing this internal map in my head. I don't get lost. I don't know of any girls that can do that. On the other hand, both people that I know that are going to med school are girls so..

Though the average IQs .... hundred candidates for every seat.

That is very interesting! I wonder, is this knowledge mainstream among American institutions? I doubt it.

 

[StarWorms]

IQs tend to be higher for men. Men tend to be better at things like maths and logic, whereas women are good at ironing (joking). They each have their strengths and really, 2 IQ points isn't a big deal, especially when you try and apply those to individuals.

 

[Hitro]

"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?

Yes, of course. It will be almost exactly the same. As in only very marginally different, if at all.

 

[Arwon]

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.

Are you seriously telling me people end up in the upper elite echelons of society based on merit?

 

[warpus]

Given that men and women had totally different roles for hunreds of thousands (millions?) of years during the development of our species, It's kinda obvious for me to assume that we're better at different things.. physically and mentally.

Now, I may be wrong, but that's my justification for going with option 3 on the poll.

 

[Zelig]

Men and women would on average, be equally intelligent, but my extreme intelligence drags men's average up considerably above women's.

 

[thescaryworker]

I think that the average man is intellectually equivalent to a woman, but with differences in specialization. However, I believe that these differences are imposed by society as opposed to being coded in genes.

 

[PeteAtoms]

We are all equally stupid, IMO. And I treat everyone the same, regardless of the facts, not because I believe its the right thing to do, but because than I don't have to listen to people calling me sexist.

But I once heard the most unfair things you can do, is treat unequal equally.

 

[Onionsoilder]

Males think differently then females. It's scientific fact. Regarding if one is smarter then the other, well... you can't say for sure. I guess they're better/weaker in different areas.

 

[Harbringer]

I think men are better at thinking geometrically in there heads, on average. Ive moved many houses with many women, and it just seems that they always seem to miss very obvious ways off stacking things for efficiency, and how to turn and twist objects to get them through doorways and stuff, and they always seem to misjudge what will fit and what wont fit. Ive noticed this in other areas as well, but that's just anecdote.

 

[PeteAtoms]

I think men are better at thinking geometrically in there heads, on average. Ive moved many houses with many women, and it just seems that they always seem to miss very obvious ways off stacking things for efficiency, and how to turn and twist objects to get them through doorways and stuff, and they always seem to misjudge what will fit and what wont fit. Ive noticed this in other areas as well, but that's just anecdote.

My own personal experience is similar to yours. The women I generally hang out with are poor judges of weight and distance.

 

[Sharwood]

My own personal experience is similar to yours. The women I generally hang out with are poor judges of weight and distance.

That's because they spend so much time lying about their own.

Curiously, while they're terrible at packing when moving, they're great at fitting ungodly amounts of clothes into suitcases and bags.

 

[PeteAtoms]

That's because they spend so much time lying about their own.

Plus if the only distance they walk is between the kitchen and the bedroom, it only makes sense they can't judge distance very well...

 

[Sharwood]

Plus if the only distance they walk is between the kitchen and the bedroom, it only makes sense they can't judge distance very well...

You forgot about the fact that it takes them three hours to walk 500m if there are any clothing or shoe stores in that distance. I cannot tell you the amount of times I've been walking with a woman, only to realise she's 50m behind me looking in the window of a shoe store.

 

[Fifty]

they have roughly the same average IQs, but the bell curve of male IQs is flatter (more geniuses, more idiots)