digg

Join DiggAbout

The Digg Crew wants to hear your thoughts!
Please take our short survey about Digg and potential feature ideas.

Men are smarter (and more stupid) than women, say scientists

dailymail.co.uk — For centuries men believed themselves to be smarter than the fairer sex, who they felt were only equipped for wifely duties.

show profanity settings
expand all
  • jollyholly, on 10/10/2007, -7/+60Guys have two brains.. one in their head and one in their pants. (One is smarter than the other.)
    • MikeonTV, on 10/10/2007, -10/+4ASL?
    • LordofShadows, on 10/10/2007, -1/+15[insert general stereotypical male/female/digg user insult here]
    • InSectWar, on 10/10/2007, -2/+33Guys have two heads, but only enough blood to use one at a time.
      • AriaStar, on 10/10/2007, -2/+35Whereas we women have too much blood and must rid ourselves of the extra once a month.

        So much for "intelligent" design.
    • aliengoods, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1I don't get it
    • moocow1452, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Which one?
    • Rukaribe, on 10/10/2007, -2/+3Didn't the Dean of Harvard or somewhere say this then get fired because of it?
    • lead2thehead, on 10/10/2007, -1/+0Wow... what a totally funny and original joke.
  • BigManOnCampus, on 10/10/2007, -6/+4Then I am both wiser and simpler than thou art!
  • tehbored, on 10/10/2007, -2/+4Well, this certainly clears up a thing or two!
  • MrColdheart, on 10/10/2007, -1/+8well it goes to prove that women are the steady rock that grounds the men that love them.

    ...well at least for me
  • AsianChopsticks, on 10/10/2007, -2/+30We are either ***** or geniuses...
    Sounds about right, considering High School.
    • keitarofujiwara, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2Men are smarter and there is proof in one big true statistic:
      I'll name a hundred great men in science for every great woman in science, period. And, don't give me that crap about women being oppressed in the past, about them not being able to go to school blah blah... Its 2007, look at at the schools today. Even thorough, as one digger mentioned earlier, they favor females - its the same ***** thing!? No change at all!
      If you speak the truth, you're a chauvinist pig and If you lie you're modern and open minded.
      • offwithyourtv, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3I'm a woman, and many of the smartest people I know, people that I look up to, are men. Many of the stupidest people I've met are also men. It makes sense to me. Men just have a wider bell curve than women when measuring intelligence. This doesn't change the fact that really smart people, regardless of sex, are still a minority, and that's the part that I think is unfortunate.
  • Terrk, on 10/10/2007, -4/+21God, just what the women right's activists need....



    • wafflez, on 10/10/2007, -3/+7ahaha that's what I hate. They'll look at stuff like this and not come to the conclusion that we're both EQUAL, but that women are somehow much better ;_;
  • AriaStar, on 10/10/2007, -11/+52I'm going to be dugg down to hell for this (because I'm a woman agreeing with this article), but from what I have seen, men do tend to be smarter, and it's not because schools are geared toward them. Schools are actually more geared toward girls these days. No amount of feminism can change that, biologically, men are supporters of families while women incubate and give birth and raise babies. Men can't get pregnant and have the babies, we do.
    • moocow1452, on 10/10/2007, -4/+45Girl on the Nets! GIRL ON THE NETS!!!!!!

      Evacuate! Evacuate!
    • brandizzle, on 10/10/2007, -5/+12In my experience men tend to have the engineering/math/science intelligence that allows them to put a sharp rock on a stick to allow them to poke buffalo from far away. Women tend to have more of the surviving/common sense intelligence that allows them to know not to let the children run off a cliff.
      • programrer, on 10/10/2007, -0/+19by survival intelligence i assume that you mean the sense to prepare and to put said buffalo meat between two pieces of bread?
        • brandizzle, on 10/10/2007, -4/+10Yes. The stupid men can't do that for themselves.
          • scotticus, on 10/10/2007, -3/+13Why are most top chefs male? It's not ability, it's will.
          • hfactor, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1As with maths/engineering.
        • programrer, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7well played. well played.

          you could also say that the smarter men found a way out of having to do it for themselves!
      • srodolff, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Hopefully, you don't think all men are stupid, Brandi......;) and yes, I can cook....lol
      • MattBD, on 10/31/2007, -0/+1I'd agree with that. I'm of above average intelligence (as I'm sure most people on Digg are) but I often seem to display an alarming lack of common sense that mystifies women.
    • BlackCow, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3I have noticed, being a junior in high school, that women tend to make the honor roll much more than guys yet I know some brilliant males who don't (because they are focused in their specific interests, with my friends mainly math, and not others). I, a guy, am also the same way.

      I think a good portion of it has to do with cultural influence more than genetic.
    • brainScan, on 10/10/2007, -2/+8Actually, the real explanation for women not scoring as high as men is probably the stereotypes that you're spouting here. Numerous studies have shown that priming with negative stereotypes affects performance of numerous groups (e.g., elderly, african-americans, women) on cognitive tasks. The tasks that were used in this study were specifically the math, science, and mechanical skills that the stereotypical woman supposedly does poorly at. The aforementioned studies have also shown that exposure to positive stereotypes for the same groups actually improved performance on the same tasks to the level where there was no difference among the groups. So, if you'd quit trying to justify these unfounded stereotypes, future generations would be a lot better off for it!!!
      • offwithyourtv, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Seriously. I had read some similar studies in a Psychology class in my undergrad. It really made me appreciate how my parents encouraged my interests in science and math rather than shooting them down, or insisting I put down the pirate Legos and play with dolls. Now I get to be one of the minorities in the Engineering department as a grad student.
      • srodolff, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Good job Off. I prefer to think that people in general are as intelligent as thay want to be. I'm still a mental sponge for facts.
    • hfactor, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2What does being smart have to do with getting babies? Just asking.

      Plus: In Germany, girls are actually significantly better at school. They are starting to think about "boys' programs" to help out. Why's that, according to your theory?

      P.s.: I'm male.
      • keitarofujiwara, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1"Plus: In Germany, girls are actually significantly better at school..." German males are different... that's why we had World Wars, Hans!
    • pardimate, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3I have noticed that school is based more on coursework than exams, which is unfortunate for me. Even though I am a female, I tend to enjoy just taking tests more than hours of tedious and redundant homework assignments.
  • somespecial, on 10/10/2007, -10/+1Glad I don't fall into the stupider category
    • stklaw, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1You just fell into it by posting this comment.
  • Kurisuku, on 10/10/2007, -18/+8This is why I'm gay.
  • SadPanda, on 10/10/2007, -3/+5When reading, parenthesis contain material that can be omitted without destroying or altering the meaning of a sentence.
    basically, you don't need the "(and more stupid)" part in there..
  • Vodka2389, on 10/10/2007, -1/+5I thought it was common knowledge...
    • nastajus, on 10/18/2007, -1/+0I hate "common knowledge". Expect.. everyone.. to know it? What exactly does it mean? In which peoples' heads is these proportions supposed to be spontaneously injected into our brains... All? All... Sigh.
  • Kurse, on 10/10/2007, -2/+21"I'm a man who discovered the wheel and built the Eiffel Tower out of metal and brawn. That's what kind of man I am. You're just a woman with a small brain. With a brain a third the size of us. It's science."
    • Jozer99, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3Don't forget they only have 45 chromosomes!
      • stklaw, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1You have 48.
        • stklaw, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Left a note out.
          Just because they have 2 of the same, doesn't mean that they have 1 less.

          And if you don't know what it means to have 47/48 chromosomes, don't ask.
    • SSCrow, on 10/10/2007, -2/+7Anchorman is one of the greatest movies I have ever seen.
      too many classic moments.
  • cowsgonemadd3, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1It varies from person to person and so its not universal if even average.
    As far as I am concerned I do not care if us males are smarter women are pretty (not as smart by a hair compared to us and all).
  • MrARPA, on 11/07/2007, -1/+11Surely it's old news that there are more men at the extremes of the bell curve ?
    • gradeahonky, on 10/10/2007, -2/+4It certainly makes sense to me. Evolution has more room to experiment with guys because it can afford to lose a lot of guys. It'll jumble up our hormones and brain structures and have a bunch of casualties along the way, but the one awesome guy it produces will impregnate all the women and build himself a kick ass tree fort and invent a wall to keep all the riff-raff out. If a woman dies, on the other hand, the population loses all her potential children. So it has to play it safe with women, no ridiculous experiments.

      So, ironically, women are the more stable of the two sexes in an evolutionary sense.
      • bungoman, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6Evolution doesn't "do" anything. There is no direction and no experimentation. If something happens it is only because it works and is good enough to survive. Sorry, just had to nitpick with the wording there.
  • neuropsychguy, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3I seriously have been saying this for years. I used to have discussions about it with friends in high school. These discussions spurred my interest in intelligence and intelligence testing and are partly why I entered the field I did (psychology). Now that I give IQ tests to people as part of my grad school training, my experiences testing kids confirm my old hypothesis - I see a lot more boys with limited IQ than girls (we don't get too many kids in who have really high IQs).
    • Suspected, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4That was really painful to read. I assumed at first you just went to some online school, but seeing as you think psychology is all about administrating IQ tests, I find it more likely that you're just talking out of your ass.
      • hfactor, on 10/10/2007, -1/+1He didn´t say psychology is "all about" that, it´s just what he does.
    • avgbody, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2The thing is, girls have always done better in elementary school, for several reasons. It's simple math, science, English, etc... It's not until jr. high and high school that boys start catching up to the girls. Heck, I didn't start trying until High School, and didn't exceed past the majority of the students until college. I was basically a D student in elementary and a B+ student in high school, and a A student in college.

      I also think, at that young age, what boy would want to stay in a classroom for hours. Ask any boy what his favorite class is, while in elementary, and I would bet they say "Gym" class. In high school, I think the favorite class was more spread out among the academic.

      One of my favorite elementary schools that I have ever been to was in California, where they had 3 recesses. 1 in the morning, 1 in the afternoon, and 1 at lunch. I was only stuck in class at most 3 hours at a time.
  • nitsnipe, on 10/10/2007, -2/+13One could argue that there have been a lot more scientists and advancements made by men during world history, and that could have been because of the dominant role men had(and still largely do). However there has been a lot of work done by women, and as all geeks should know, THE FIRST COMPUTER PROGRAMMER WAS ACTUALLY A WOMAN; Ada Byron King.

    As for the matter of a more peaceful world if women ruled, it is totally bullsh1t. In Bangladesh for example, the leaders of the two main political parties were both women, and the two parties still are at each others throats (many times literally).
    • ssavoy, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1The first, but not the last...
    • rootneg2, on 10/10/2007, -2/+3dugg for Ada Bryon
    • DanaG, on 10/10/2007, -0/+6> THE FIRST COMPUTER PROGRAMMER WAS ACTUALLY A WOMAN; Ada Byron King.

      On the other hand, the computer was designed by a man; Charles Babbage.

      Just saying.
      • hfactor, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Zuse. Just saying.
      • avgbody, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Don't forget the father of the modern computer: Alan Turing.

      • DanaG, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I was referring to Babbage's Analytical Engine. That is, the particular computer that Lady Lovelace wrote her program for.

        But in retrospect, I can see that my comment was ambiguous.
  • jmpeagle, on 10/10/2007, -1/+14this has been known for a long time. The variation in male intelligence has always been seen as much wider than women's. Most mentally retarded people are male and most geniuses are also male....I think they have been teaching this in most Psych 101 classes for awhile now.
  • cas27, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7So it's saying that men do things the best whether it is being smart or stupid.
  • whatthefu, on 10/10/2007, -2/+2What a stupid picture/caption.
  • doritos456, on 10/10/2007, -3/+5all i read was men are twice as smart, period.
  • Kuestionmark, on 10/10/2007, -5/+2Get back in the kitchen
  • W00DR0W, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1Don't they mean "men are stupider than" lol stupid siantest.
  • daniilm, on 10/10/2007, -1/+6Men and women are different after all? No way!
  • powerfullogic, on 10/10/2007, -4/+7My wife stays in the kitchen at all times, if I catch her leaving the premise even once I will divorce her. I have built a bed and toilet facilities in there so no reason for her to leave.
    • Rukaribe, on 10/10/2007, -2/+4How does she get you beer?
      • spyd3rweb, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2pooing in the kitchen isnt gross at all.
        • qwertydvorak, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2even animals don't ***** where they eat
  • rootneg2, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3"One of the study's authors, psychology professor Timothy Bates, said the phenomenon may have its roots in society's expectations for the sexes."

    Judging from the comments, probably the most overlooked sentence FTA. This is simply about a *current* trend among adults; and there are far too many uncontrolled variables to start saying that it corroborates evolutionary explanations/theories, or that there is some sort of biological "inherent" difference between the sexes. Until there is some study conducted in the context of a wholly gender-free society (which doesn't exist at the moment, and would be, frankly, unethical to impose on a study group, since it would necessarily involve isolating them from birth; it is an essential "forbidden experiment") and with our current, limited knowledge of how the physiological structure brain produces psychological structure of the mind (which is were intelligence is expressed and percieved); then we can truly say extremely little about biologically based differences between the intelligence, mental aptitude, or emotional proclivities, of the the two sexes.
    • LordofShadows, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1But we dont live in a controlled utopian society and never will.
      • rootneg2, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1well, first of all, I never said that a gender-free society was a utopia; perhaps it could be, but I am by no means advocating "erasing gender" whatever that may mean.

        But it's true (utopia or dystopia) that it's impossible to exert that much control over even a single aspect of a society, and even to try and do would be tyrannical and immoral, and at the very least, artificial. For an "experiment" such as this to work, the gender-free phenomenon would have to arise of it's own accord out of the collective free-will of the society itself; it would have to (or have had to) "simply happen(ed)".
    • penchant, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Hey rootneg:
      This study is a little ridiculous, and is only being sensationalized because it adheres to gender stereotypes.
      There have been some interesting studies on male and female brains, for example: males are lateral, while women tend to use both sides of their brain for the same task. It's been proven that men are better at spatial rotation (rotating an object in the mind) and hitting a target (hunters, any one?), however, women are better at spatial location, patterns, and memory (farming, kids?).
      I'd also like to know when this study was conducted; specific cognitive abilities drop the week before a woman's period (while other mental abilities are "enhanced") due to high levels of estradiol and progesterone, and men's mental capabilities drop in the fall when their testosterone is at an all time high. (Check out Kimura & Hampson's study: also incorporates existing research)

      You're right, no one here noticed that sentence. The way we raise our children has predisposed women to not want a job in mathematics, (and even now, when I was in high school, it was weird that I was in AP Calculus). Science tends to be male dominated, and even today women doctors, scientists, researchers are not viewed as credible as men. Hell, even right now I am super nervous about posting because this is predominately a male site and I'll be honest, I hate the backlash. Men are encouraged with sports (and now video games) giving them a head start at the idea of "problem solving". Etc.
      There's a great BBC series you should check out, made in 1997. There are 6 parts: Separate but equal, language of the sexes, patterns of love, passages of life, the maternal dilemma, the gender wars.
      • rootneg2, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2While i definitely agree with the second paragraph, I feel like your first paragraph expresses exactly the type of thinking that we need to watch out for. The brain is extremely plastic (*especially* early in development), and environmental aspects can lead easily and quickly to developmental/physical differences in brain physiology; just because men may better at 3d spacial reasoning, and women at pattern recognition, and even if this is reflected physically in brain physiology, does not mean that this is due to evolutionary reasons (male hunters, women farmers, etc). In fact (although lacking concrete citations) I do recall articles suggesting that gender roles (at least in terms of sustenance activities) were perhaps *more* fluid and less rigid than today, back in our hunter-gatherer or early-agriculture days, and being such a recent event in our evolutionary history, significant behavioral gender-differences are probably more likely to be cultural adaptations rather than evolutionary.

        Although it is clear that there are *some* undeniable, biological differences between males and females and to say these differences have zero effect on our psychological development would be silly; it is my personal opinion (which, to me, seems to be backed by available evidence) that such differences are minimal, and essentially rendered statistically insignificant (at least as far as the general notion of "intelligence" goes) in relation to societal factors.
        • penchant, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1You're right about fluid gender roles- (look at Tahiti, a modern "primitive" society, where women hunt and are great at it)
          Measures/studies of intelligence between men and women are incredibly difficult as testers/researchers can never be unbiased nor can one test a pool of women who have not been influenced by cultural norms/societal factors/a tradition male patriarchy which rewards feminine tentative behavior, and one also has to take into consideration hormone fluctuations in the brain.
          No, scratch it being difficult, it is impossible to do such research, and the fact that scientists are still conducting tests on who is more intelligent is asinine- researchers should instead be studying the harmful effects of gender stereotypes on men and women.
          Also, you might be surprised by how much our evolutionary backgrounds effect our behavior.
          Here is a link to the first video in the doc series. (This first one is a bit of an intro to the other 5)
          http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-653948461 ...
      • penchant, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1It's by Desmond Harris, the series is called "The Human Sexes"
  • somespecial, on 10/10/2007, -2/+1Being dugg down, does not have any indication of my smartness or stupidity.
  • databoy, on 10/10/2007, -7/+1When God created man he gave him enough blood for normal body functions. Unfortunately God forgot about the blood reserve for an erection. The extra blood has to come from somewhere. It drains from the brain into his trouser snake. It is a well known fact that a man with a hard on cannot think rationally. A woman does not need a high level of intelligence, she has a pussy. A woman knows that a man with a hard on will sell his soul for a pussy.

    The moral of the story is that when it comes to sex there is no intellectual difference between a genius and a moron. Women know it and use it as a leverage to get what they want.

    As for intelligence in the normal state, both women and men have the same level of intelligence. The way the intelligence is used is different. Women are traditionally home makers; put a man in that role and he is out of his comfort zone. Women are not physically built for heavy manual labour; place a women in a manual labour role and she will not cope.

    The problem with all the intelligence studies is how do you measure intelligence? School marks, graduation from universities! Education at school is about book learning and memory recall. Having a high pass mark does not guarantee any success or competence in a real life job. Lateral thinking, using tools, preparing meals, being frugal and street wise use a different part of the brain to book learning and IQ tests.

    In the real world men and women complement each other. Unfortunately humans fail dismally when it comes to resolving relationship conflicts. That is not an intelligence problem, it is an attitude and lack of problem solving skills; a failing of the education system to teach intelligent real life survival and problem solving skills.
  • mrurc, on 10/10/2007, -3/+3In our society, women are discouraged from behaving like they are smart; if they are smart, they are taught that men don't like women who are smarter than them, so they should pretend to be dumb. If you get that nailed into your head as a child (my father tried) it can be very socially challenging to act on being smart, so you would not go for a PhD. If you have been pretending to not be smart for 15 years and not participating in things that involve learning, when you get older, you will not do as well on standardized tests because you will not have learned the things that you did not participate in. Also bad for women on standardized tests, if you believe that women are genetically predisposed to work at home, in the kitchen, and with the kids, then how can you standardize a test that does not include questions that pertain to those activities? Add to that that the results of my IQ test were "there is no IQ test that tests only thinking ability and does not also test knowledge, so we will never be able to give an accurate score."

    Men and women are different, but neither is better than the other. Standardized tests, however, are inherently faulty.
    • LordofShadows, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2"women are discouraged from behaving like they are smart"
      Are they?
  • demizer, on 10/10/2007, -2/+9I love women.

    They are so beautiful... and a pain in the ASS at the same time. Sheesh.
  • tmlee, on 10/10/2007, -1/+3This is the same statement that Larry Summers made which got him fired.
  • phazon88, on 10/10/2007, -4/+4Men are smarter than women...

    No *****.
    • kurocrow, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0I think someone needs to read the article again.
  • known, on 10/10/2007, -0/+4Men and women have different priorities.
  • jonathandaveys, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1Better not show this to my wife...
  • middyuk, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1I think I’m smart…. My girlfriend thinks I’m stupid, so I guess the article checks out.
  • Windfish, on 10/10/2007, -1/+7"The subjects were tested on science, maths, English and mechanical abilities." Well, it's no wonder that there wasn't many women in the top scorers, they forgot to include ironing, washing up, and baking cakes.
  • merikari, on 10/10/2007, -0/+2Disclaimer: I'm a man. Probably true that there are more men in the top 2%, but this is a typical example of bad use of statistics. Most new students in universities are female, so it's not just the bottom 2 percent that is skewed in favor of the female sex. The divide must be above the average IQ and in favor of women. A much more interesting comparison would be to see what percentage of the male population is in the category of "higher than average" IQ. Judging from the enrollment statistics, I would say it's probably around 40% Would be an interesting hypothesis to test.
  • liah, on 10/10/2007, -1/+2Considering the subjects (science, maths, etcetera) I'm not surprised. Women don't tend to excel in those areas. If they had included the arts, other languages, writing, pretty much anything creative-- chances are the playing field would have leveled. Men are left-brained and analytical; women are right-brained and artsy.
    • LordofShadows, on 10/10/2007, -0/+3I know plenty of hot math, cs, and engineering majors who would disagree with you. You can say women arent as interested in those areas, (look at any universities demographic/degree breakdown) but to say they dont excel will just piss them off and perpetuate this stereotype.
  • PimpMoneyRich, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1"THE FIRST COMPUTER PROGRAMMER WAS ACTUALLY A WOMAN; Ada Byron King."
    Was She Hot?

  • hansk, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1"There were twice as many men as women in the smartest group. But there were also twice as many men among the dunces. "

    WTF?!
  • fauxtank, on 10/10/2007, -0/+1The article certainly doesn't mesh with my experience. I know males and females of every conceivable intelligence level, and my experience suggests to me that if one were to graph IQ's for both sexes, they would be parabolas, peaking at an IQ of 100 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normal_distribution).

    A valid claim might be that male competitiveness pushes some men to the top of their fields, or that some environmental factor affected the results. I just find it extremely improbable that men are (almost always) either stupid, or brilliant, and that women are (almost always) right in the middle.
  •  

    Login or register to add a comment

    Create a new account or login to join in the conversation on Digg. You'll also be able to Digg stories to help promote things you like.


© Digg Inc. 2008 — Content posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain.
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.