Study Confirms Men Smarter Than Women

[Kevin]

Academics in the UK claim their research shows that men are more intelligent than women.

A study to be published later this year in the British Journal of Psychology says that men are on average five points ahead on IQ tests.

Paul Irwing and Professor Richard Lynn claim the difference grows when the highest IQ levels are considered.

Their research was based on IQ tests given to 80,000 people and a further study of 20,000 students.

'Widening gap'

Dr Irwing, a senior lecturer in organisational psychology at Manchester University, told the Today programme on BBC Radio Four the study showed that, up to the age of 14, there was no difference between the IQs of boys and girls.

"But beyond that age and into adulthood there is a difference of five points, which is small but it can have important implications," he said.

"This is against a background of women dramatically overtaking men in educational attainment and making very rapid advances in terms of occupational achievement."

The academics used a test which is said to measure "general cognitive ability" - spatial and verbal ability.

As intelligence scores among the study group rose, the academics say they found a widening gap between the sexes.

There were twice as many men with IQ scores of 125, for example, a level said to correspond with people getting first-class degrees.

At scores of 155, associated with genius, there were 5.5 men for every woman.

Nobel prize-winners

Dr Irwing told The Times the differences "may go some way to explaining the greater numbers of men achieving distinctions of various kinds, such as chess grandmasters, Fields medallists for mathematics, Nobel prize-winners and the like".

The paper will argue that there is evidence that at the same level of IQ, women are able to achieve more than men "possibly because they are more conscientious and better adapted to sustained periods of hard work".

Earlier this year, the president of Harvard University, Lawrence Summers, sparked controversy when he suggested at a seminar that one reason men outperformed women in maths and science was genetics.

Several guests walked out of the conference after hearing the comments.

Dr Summers, who has apologised repeatedly for his remarks, said later that the shortage of senior female academics was partly caused by child-minding duties, which restricted working hours.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4183166.stm

[Rudey]

I don't even have to read that.

That's sexist.

-Rudey

[AKA_Monet]

How come men will never understand women then?

[valkyrie]

The study shows that men score higher than women on IQ tests. WOW!!!!!

[sugar and spice]

Originally posted by valkyrie
The study shows that men score higher than women on IQ tests. WOW!!!!!

Fo' shizzle.

I don't get why they keep putting out these studies showing that men outperform women on IQ tests, or whites outperform non-whites -- and the conclusion is always that the fault lies with women, or with non-whites -- not, I don't know, the IQ tests?

It's not rocket science, kids. You don't need an IQ of 155 to figure this out.

[James]

Why would an IQ test be at fault? ITs something normed to a population distribution.

People just have to remember that your IQ score is really a product of how well you do on the knowledge that specific test measures.

[AGDee]

An IQ test, as defined in my IQ testing course in grad school, measures the ability to succeed in today's academic system. It could be argued that there is bias toward men in our academic system leading men to score higher, just as it is argued that there is bias against minorities, leading them to score lower.

[Taualumna]

Originally posted by AGDee
An IQ test, as defined in my IQ testing course in grad school, measures the ability to succeed in today's academic system. It could be argued that there is bias toward men in our academic system leading men to score higher, just as it is argued that there is bias against minorities, leading them to score lower.

IF that's really the case, then why are there more male drop outs than female? Why do colleges tend to have more female students than male?

[valkyrie]

Originally posted by Taualumna
IF that's really the case, then why are there more male drop outs than female? Why do colleges tend to have more female students than male?

Well, correlation does not imply causation, so who knows.

[AGDee]

Originally posted by Taualumna
IF that's really the case, then why are there more male drop outs than female? Why do colleges tend to have more female students than male?

Because men are lazier and don't want to do the work? Because more men are willing to do factory jobs where they can make more money than they can make with an MBA? Because they are going right into the NBA? I don't know. There are fewer males who live to college age? (I believe there are more male children born but more of them also die as infants.. that was the case 20 years ago anyway) (all of that was tongue in cheek, just in case anybody thinks I'm making up false data).

ETA: Some men are joining the military to pay for their college and never make it to college.

[James]

I have no empirical evidence to back this up . . . but its my experience that women work in systems and do ticket punching better than men.

Women are more likely as a whole to attend all classes, hand in all homework and are often better prepared than their male counterparts.

In recent years many schools have become more systems oriented even when it comes to grading. Attendance counting as part of your grade, Homework as part of your grade, etc.

So even a male outscored a woman on exam, she might very well crush his overall class grade because she attends to all the other details.

Originally posted by AGDee
Because men are lazier and don't want to do the work? Because more men are willing to do factory jobs where they can make more money than they can make with an MBA? Because they are going right into the NBA? I don't know. There are fewer males who live to college age? (I believe there are more male children born but more of them also die as infants.. that was the case 20 years ago anyway) (all of that was tongue in cheek, just in case anybody thinks I'm making up false data).

ETA: Some men are joining the military to pay for their college and never make it to college.

[hoosier]

Originally posted by AGDee
An IQ test, as defined in my IQ testing course in grad school, measures the ability to succeed in today's academic system. It could be argued that there is bias toward men in our academic system leading men to score higher, just as it is argued that there is bias against minorities, leading them to score lower.

Those arguing that point must be ladies or minorities.

Show me a question on an IQ test that discriminates.

[valkyrie]

Originally posted by hoosier
Those arguing that point must be ladies or minorities.

Show me a question on an IQ test that discriminates.

Are you the exception that proves the rule?

[Rudey]

Originally posted by hoosier
Those arguing that point must be ladies or minorities.

Show me a question on an IQ test that discriminates.

Of course they are. In fact, some groups have railed against the SATs being racist. But their arguments focused on kids not needing to know only math and English, and that music should be tested as a subject.

What a joke.

-Rudey