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. Dr Irwing, a senior lecturer in organisational psychology at Manchester University, told the Today programme on BBC Radio Four that up until the age of 14, the study showed 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 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.
Source: BBC News
From my experience, girls maybe just as smart but they never seem to show it or be interested in anything remotely academic, they would argue if confronted but ive noticed even smart girls are pretty ditzy most of the times. Indeed girls whom one can have a decent conversation with about somthing other than other people or TV are most rare. Maybe it something they grow into.
Ok, I will try not to get stressy and insulted by what I have just read.
One of the things you learn in Psychology is IQ tests are biased. Always have been. Biased towards white, middle class, male Americans.
Also, it is hard to define what "intelligence" is. Being able to do well in IQ tests (by the way, I usually score between the 140 and 160) doesn't mean you are intelligent. Often the more booksmart people are, the less streetsmart they are.
I feel I have to disagree with the previous comment about women not being interested in academics. At the University of Surrey (a very science based uni) there are over 1000 more female students than male ones.
Girls do better in school exams as they have better communication skills, so they can express themselves better in written exams. While girls have stronger communicative and emotional intelligence (which is why they can play evil mind games), boys have stronger spatial and numerical intelligence. This would explain why more men go on to win chess and math competitions.
And still, I fail to see that a woman who can juggle a job, raising a family, and keeping a home in order is less intelligent than some lazy man who sits on his arse playing chess all day!