Posted on 09/08/2006 6:46:07 PM PDT by presidio9
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 uses only the tough questions in the test. "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.
Flawed conclusion
Bruce Bracken, a psychologist at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, who was not involved in the new study, said he thinks Rushton and Jackson make a convincing argument for the sample they used.
"The difference appears to be real," Bracken said.
But he questions the team's conclusions. "I believe that the differences probably lie in the variables they hadn't considered," Bracken said.
One plausible explanation is that more females than males decide to go to college and thus take the SAT test. The study did in fact include about 10,000 more females than males.
"This suggests that more males are deciding to do something else," Bracken said. "It may be that the males who would not have scored as high on the SAT chose not to take it, and they chose another route."
A more reliable study, he said, would be to match each male with a very similar female and then compare the results.
The debate goes on
The findings add fuel to a still smoldering debate ignited by former Harvard President Lawrence Summers, who stated early last year that males have a higher intrinsic aptitude in science and engineering.
In a letter from Summers days after his controversial statements, he wrote: "Despite reports to the contrary, I did not say, and I do not believe, that girls are intellectually less able than boys, or that women lack the ability to succeed at the highest levels of science. As the careers of a great many distinguished women scientists make plain, the human potential to excel in science is not somehow the province of one gender or another.”
While Rushton called his results significant, he doesn't think they are a basis for uprooting the field of education.
"I don't think it has any real implications for education policy or schoolwork," he said. "In fact, females actually get better grades than males.”
Plus, he doesn't think the IQ difference would show up in everyday activities. "For the vast majority of people in the vast majority of jobs, it really doesn't translate into very much," he said.
But when it comes to Nobel Prize winners, he said that men could outnumber women 10-to-1. "Where it will really show up is at the very high end of the distribution," Rushton said.
Rushton has left the door open for opposing views and findings that might contradict his new study.
"I wouldn't say it's the last word. We really do need more research on it before we can be absolutely certain," Rushton said.
I see....I should just embrace my inner psycho, then?.....;D
Here's a Jethro Tull song that hubby has [unwillingly] become very familiar with;
No tats....yet.
[I just started riding my own Harley in honor of my "mid-life crisis...who knows what's next?]...;D
SO........size matters after all...... ;-)
Actually, I believe, Harry Belafonte was the original. Many others covered it.
Little boy sit on the corner and cry
Big man come and ask him why
He say "I can't do like the big boys do"
The man sit down and he cry too.
I've been aware for some time that the bell curve for men's intelligence is flatter than that for women.
While this may indicate that there are more male geniuses, it also indicates that there are more male idiots.
Welcome to the club, and choose wisely the table at which you will sit.
Would one of you guys please explain what this means?
Well, from someone who's going on 63; been marriend a couple of times and has been around the "block" a couple of times, (and as I've had a couple of glasses of Burgundy, which probably has dulled my better judgment in doing so,) permit me to make an effort.
We are smarter because we allow women to think they are, agree with same and NEVER, ever, let on that we know, the truth, that we in fact, are--why do you think we are always("pretending") to be lost and not know where we are?
It's just a part of the ploy to not let our superior intellect show and merely another ruse to feed and stroke the feminine ego in order to maintain a copasetic living environment.
Now you know why I "WAS" married. lol
You are a dude..so, of course, you are wrong!
Old wives tale? I don't know..maybe.
If I'm wrong, do you think I'll admit it?
I'm a young man and making notes for the future. I hear it's a real jungle out there..
The bigger mystery of the universe is why men will not stop to ask directions.
"While I am a big fan of our she-FReepers, women voted overwhelmingly for Kerry and Gore. End of story."
Let's not forget how BJ stayed in the oval orifice. "After all, it's just about sex, la dee da."
OK,
in my 45 plus group it's in this order....
Belly button piercing,
New car....either a convertable or at least bright red.
OR a motorcycle will do.
A tattoo.
Taking up a new hobby that absolutely shocks and terrifies fiends and family.
Getting a 10 year younger boyfriend (if single).
Making hubby ACT like he's 10 years younger (if married).
Hanging out with all the same age, like minded chicks on the weekend comparing piercings, tats, cars, boyfriends, hubbies and cute shoes.
... and cats are smarter than all of us. They get fed regularly, prowl around whenever they want and sleep all day.
Really? I "complained" that an article was posted about some H-wood starlet showing up late for some movie shoot. Had NOTHING to do with politics, yet I got ragged on by posters for pointing out bandwidth here is presumably for posts somehow politically related. Now you say stem cell articles are banned? Yikes.
Obviously, its a good thing for you that we are all anonymous.
Thanks for a good belly laugh. The first today and its late and I really needed that!!!
Wife replies; "God made us beautiful so you'd love us. He made us stupid so we'd love you."
*curtsy*
Classic.
That's why Moses wandered around for 40 years in the desert.
Guns & Harley's? Now that is interesting.. LOL!
A dumb man must have done this study.
Oh Sal, do you live in a liberal state?
You poor thing.
It is not about inner pycho..it is about..oh gee..where do you live?
You post a song your husband has become familiar with? Geez! My husband best forget getting a song..
GOOD ONE!
But, I told you there was something wrong with them!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.