be getting a huge disability check each month.
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.
Does he leave the "seat" up? That's a true test..
Beautifully said.
Do you know Zena?
I know it's coming..it is here..I want to get it over with..no tears for lost looks..no problems with what I have accomplished..
I don't really know how to explain it..
I too, look (not great, but pretty) good for my age and I have my Mom's side of the family's genes to thank for that. I often get taken for mid-late 40's or early 50's
Regardless, age is a "state of mind" and (as the old saying goes) its all a case of mind over matter--if you don't mind, it don't matter.
Listen, every decade I feel better than the last and at 50, your not even over your prime yet and as long as you have your health, (which I hope is the case) you've got it all.
I, like many others, sometimes think (and say) that it would be nice to be 21, or 30 or 40 again, usually though, with the caveat, "and know what I know now," but in reality, I'm happy with where I'm at and my age and don't think I'd really want to go back.
But don't fret, you aren't alone. Its a fact of life that we all age--it just that some of us do so more "gracefully."
A man's take on relationship (well, mine anyway):
"Make me happy and you'll be happy, make me sad, and just don't bother coming around!!"
My husband is an a$$. Outwardly
He talks abut himself a lot..he talks over Bill O'Reilly..he talks through my favorite shows..I love him! Truly.
My husband needs constant reassurance (for several reasons). So what? When he feels loved and fulfilled so do I. So I get irritated once in awhile., sometimes..sometimes, it's like SHUT UP!!..but that feeling is so small compared to my love
NO oxymoron to what I have said, I still play games..but I love him..truly
Carter AND Arafart.
Demographics sometimes choose our methods
No but I've seen Xenalyte around.....:)
OOOOOH YEEEAAAH!! I can attest to that. Didn't do to well in class, but I aced almost every one of the girl tests. Hey, you gotta know where you're priorities are. They say a good man is always backed up by a great woman!! I had to do my homework, and I found mine, HEHE!!
OOOOOH YEEEAAAH!! I can attest to that. Didn't do to well in class, but I aced almost every one of the girl tests. Hey, you gotta know where you're priorities are. They say a good man is always backed up by a great woman!! I had to do my homework, and I found mine, HEHE!!
I don't really know how to explain it.."
It is a matter of being comfortable with yourself and where you are at in life. We are in the age that is breaking the old standards. A few centuries ago, 40 was considered "old".
But you'll love her anyway..because you ove her..right?
Sometimes, there is not a choice. Loving someone means loving their perceived "faults">
"But after a divorce..."
The reason my ex is an ex is because of her electrifying personality. She always attracted the highest attention from all the clerks in every store in town by opening her purse and yelling 'CHARGE'.
;^D
With replies like that, I vote women are funnier.
If men are so smart, why is it, that 60% of college graduates are now women? Maybe it is smart not to get a college degree, but I doubt it. What I think is that males more than females, tend to be disproportionately represented on both ends of the bell curve tail, as to smarts. Why? I don't have a clue.
From what I've seen, that "something else" is mooching off mom & dad. I've never seen so many lazy young men thinking their parents are obligated to support them forever. I've never seen so many older men who think their wives/girlfriends should support them. Is it something in the water making men lazy?
IMHO, man and woman were made to complement one another. Men submerse themselves in calculus, women tell them when to come in from the rain.
I knew I was getting it wrong. Damn oldtimer's.
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