British men are better drivers than women: top examiner

LONDON (AFP) - The man in charge of driving test standards in Britain steered into controversy by claiming that men are better drivers than women.

In his role as chief examiner for the British government's Driving Standards Agency, Robin Cummins oversees 1.5 million driving tests each year -- and has concluded that male drivers display "more natural ability" than their female counterparts, according to The Sunday Times.

"Overall it does seem to be that men can pick up the basic skills more quickly," Cummins was quoted as saying.

"With young men there seems to be a lot more natural ability. Some females -- though not all -- take a lot more teaching".

Statistics showed that men are better at controlling and manoeuvring a car and need less tuition, Cummins said.

He told the broadsheet newspaper that current pass rates showed women needed more time and tests to pass, with the overall rate for women 40 percent compared with 46 percent for men.

Male drivers needed an average of 12.2 hours of driving lessons before passing their test -- while women need 15.3 hours -- and women were 40 percent more likely than men to fail the test when reversing or trying a three-point turn, he said.

Cummins -- whose job includes maintaining the standards of the 1,586 driving examiners throughout England, Scotland and Wales -- was quick to concede that "there are plenty of women who are excellent drivers and plenty of men who are terrible."

British motoring organisations leapt to the defence of female drivers following the accusation that they are inferior to men.

"This is the battle of the sexes that has been talked about for years," a spokeswoman for the British School of Motoring (BSM) said.

"BSM has found that there is no marked difference between the way men and women learn to drive," she said, noting that the age of the learner driver has a much bigger effect on their ability to pass a driving test.

Car insurance company First Alternative Insurance, a Halifax and Bank of Scotland firm, cited its discounted female car insurance rates as proof that the industry considers women drivers to have a better safety record than men.

The company unveiled a new women-only car insurance policy last year after a survey revealed two-thirds of male drivers showed a "need for speed", compared to only a third of women.

Data quoted by Cummins that women took an average of 2.12 driving tests to pass, while men need just 1.87 was also an insufficient indicator that male drivers were better, said Tony Vickers of the Association of British Drivers.

"It doesn't matter whether you pass your test in 10 or 20 lessons, there is never a good time to stop learning and never a time when caution isn't the most important thing on the road whether you are male or female," he said.

Bad driving 'linked to hormones'

Spatial skills such as map reading and parking may be difficult for some women because they had too little testosterone in the womb.

Some men have long held that women are deficient in these skills.

Scientists from the University of Giessen, Germany, writing in the journal Intelligence found a lack of the hormone affects spatial ability.

Low testosterone levels are also linked to shorter wedding ring fingers, they say.

The research looked at the spatial, numerical and verbal skills of 40 student volunteers.

Men do seem to be better at spatial abilities, and women at verbal and emotional skills

Dr Nick Neave, British Psychological Society

Spatial skill is the ability to assess and orientate shapes and spaces. Map reading and parking are spatial skills which men often say women lack. Women tend to disagree.

The researchers also looked at the length of the students' wedding and index fingers.

In women, the two fingers are usually almost equal in length, as measured from the crease nearest the palm to the fingertip. In men, the ring finger tends to be much longer than the index.

For one of the spatial tests, volunteers had to tell which of five drawings could not be rotated so it looked like the other four.

The other test involved the ability to think in 3D by mentally "unfolding" a complex shape.

Overall, men achieved higher scores in the tests than women.

But women with the male pattern of finger length did better than those whose wedding finger was shorter.

They also scored better on the numerical tests.

Fertility

Writing in Intelligence, the researchers, led by Dr Petra Kempel, said women who had 'male-like' finger length ratio patterns outperformed other women.

They added that the differences seen within the group studied were "remarkable."

However, the researchers accept that their study was limited because only one saliva sample was taken from each person, and no detailed account was taken of women's menstrual cycle, which can affect hormone balance.

Other studies looking at finger length ratio have suggested that, in men a long ring finger and symmetrical hands are an indication of fertility, and that women are more likely to be fertile if they have a longer index finger.

Another study controversially suggested that finger length ratio could also be linked to sexual orientation, with lesbian women having a greater difference in length between their ring finger and index finger than straight women do.

Dr Nick Neave, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Northumbria who specialises in spatial awareness and gender differences.

He said: "Being exposed to testosterone early on does seem to affect the way the brain works.

"It seems to push it to work in a more masculine way, with a stronger right hemisphere; the spatial hemisphere.

"The extra testosterone also appears to cause the ring finger to be longer than the index."

Bones contain testosterone receptors, and Dr Neave said the fourth finger appeared to be particularly receptive to levels of the hormone.

Higher levels are linked the ring finger being longer than the index.

Dr Neave, a member of the British Psychological Society, added: "The sexes do use different skills to find their way around. Men seem to be able to keep the route in their head without landmarks, whereas women do use them.

"So men may be better at finding the car when its parked in a huge shopping centre car-park. It may also tap into driving and parking abilities."

He added: "Men do seem to be better at spatial abilities, and women at verbal and emotional skills.

"It may be a generalisation, but that does seem to be the case."

But Dr David Gray of the Department of Philosophy at Harvard University, said: "Correlation between genetic features and skills may often have an environmental intermediary which determines performance at a given skill."

He suggested skilled drivers may be those who are more practised at the activity. In addition, he said people with longer ring fingers may have dominating personalities and therefore do more driving.

"This practice would make them better at these activities and would be correlated with a physical feature, but not caused by it."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4202199.stm

When the end of the world comes, everybody on earth goes to
heaven. God comes and says, "I want the men to make two lines.
One line for the men that dominated their women on earth and the
other line for the men that were dominated by their women. Also,
I want all the women to go with St. Peter."

With that said and done, the next time God looked, the women are
gone and there are two lines. The line of the men that were
dominated by their women was 100 miles long, and in the line of
men that dominated their women, there was only one man.

God became angry and said, "You men should be ashamed of
yourselves. I created you in my image and you were all whipped
by your mates. Look at the only one of my sons that stood up and
made me proud. Learn from him! Tell them my son, how did you
manage to be the only one in this line?"

And the man replied, "I
don't know, my wife told me to stand here."

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.