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Report Claims Men More Intelligent Than Women

Jeremy Dean writes "In controversial research reported all over the place, Richard Lynn, the emeritus professor of psychology at Ulster University claims that, on average, men are more intelligent than women. Let battle commence! As the research is not yet published there's nothing more to go on than the press reports. The co-author of the study, Dr Irwing, a senior lecturer in organisational psychology at Manchester University, is apologetic about the findings. In the BBC News report he states that the paper will go on to argue that despite their disadvantage in IQ, there is evidence that women utilise their (lesser!) talents better than men. This simply begs the question of what use IQ tests are if they don't predict anything in the real world."

10 of 1,523 comments (clear)

  1. Obviously, we *are* more intelligent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Every woman on earth believes that men should be able to read minds. Every man knows this is impossible. Ergo, we are more intelligent.

    Now if we could just find a way to explain this to the ladies, there'd be much less unhappiness in this world.

    1. Re:Obviously, we *are* more intelligent by Jeremi · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Oh, you mean you really *can't* read minds? Silly men. I guess we gals just take that ability for granted


      At the risk of ruining the joke... there is something to this. Not the ability to literally read minds, but the ability to detect and interpret the subtle non-verbal cues people display that can provide information regarding their mental and emotional state -- for example, a repositioning of the posture of the shoulders, or a slight change in breathing pattern, a miniscule change in facial coloring, or even possibly a change in pheromone composition. I suspect that when women get frustrated with men for "just not knowing" things, it is because they (the women) are used to being easily able to pick up these subtle hints themselves at a subconscious level, and therefore they take having that skill for granted and expect that everyone should be able to do it.


      Many men, on the other hand, prefer explicit/formal communication and either dismiss these non-verbal cues as unimportant, or (just as likely) are unable to reliably detect them at all. This is especially the case among the borderline-Aspberger's-Syndrome types that like to frequent Slashdot (you all know who you are ;^)), but I suspect it holds true on average for the gender as a whole.

      --


      I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
  2. Battle? by desplesda · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why exactly do we have to battle at all? What's the reason to have any sort of contest over which 'side' is 'better' than the other? It just seems like a waste of energy to try and 'prove' that one sex is in any way superior to another. We are who we are, and most of our achievements aren't due to how our brains and bodies are wired at birth, it's what we do with our brains and bodies.

  3. With nothing to go on by jhines0042 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My question is this... who wrote the tests?

    I would be willing to bet that if a woman were to come up with an IQ test that women would do better at it than men.

    Being smart doesn't make you better at anything other than being smart. If you can add two 8 digit numbers in your head then great. If you can lift a car over your head, good for you. If you can stomach the sight of blood enough to become a doctor, guess what... good for you.

    Women, men, children, black, white, grey, whatever.... who you are is not defined by what you can do better than others. Nobody is the best at everything. Some people throw great parties or know how to make others laugh and feel better about themselves. If that is their greatest skill then so be it. Everyone should be happy with themselves or at least be given sufficient opportunity to be happy with themselves.

    If your only way to be happy about yourself is to be better at something than others, find a new hobby.

    --
    42 - So long and thanks for all the fish.
  4. Re:EQ (emotional intelligence) by ptaff · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Seems to me the Emotional Quotient is a simple reaction to IQ. "So, men perform better in one test, let's find another evaluation that is broadly similar in name, mixes concepts and in which woman get the best results".

    Nobody complains that women and asian people are smaller on average then men and african people, but when it comes to IQ, seems every group on average should get the same average (men, women, caucasian, black, rich, poor, Britney Spears fans, music lovers, and so on). Absurd.

    Why should these quotient measurements give equal score to all sides? Why would nature divide intelligence equally between gender and races?

    All Political Correct crap to me.

  5. Re:why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
    You haven't been denied the right to vote, discriminated at the workplace, took lesser wages


    Unless I was, uh, not white.


    Incidentally, I get treated like SHIT compared to women, simply because I am, in a word, unattractive.

  6. Re:why? by crimson30 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You haven't been denied the right to vote

    Nope. And you have?

  7. Re:Uh oh! by Seumas · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This whole idea is rather obvious and simple.

    Look, men are groomed from childhood to be smart, be athletic, make money, get a hot girlfriend or wife and work for a living their entire life.

    Women are groomed to be cute, pretty and attract a rich, athletic, successful, smart man.

    Women have as much potential as men. It's just a matter of where we, as a society, influence them to go. Girls are never praised for being so smart, but you're praised for being so cute and adorable the day you're born, then hot and sexy the rest of your life after some teen-ish age.

  8. hmmm by bgog · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So, if they can charge men more for car insurance because statistically they are worse drivers then can employers pay women less because statistically they are less intellegent?

    NOTE: I'm ripping on the car insurance, not advocating paying women less. It's all foolishness.

  9. Politically Correct != Correct by Shaper_pmp · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Leave aside for a moment the question of whether or not IQ tests are fair measures of "intelligence" (whatever that is), and consider the following question:

    Hypothetically, in our enlightened modern climate of equality and fairness, even if were proven beyond doubt that (for example) men are more intelligent than women, would we accept it or (as most of the comments above, and on the BBC News feedback page) merely reject it out of hand?

    Nobody would be up in arms if asian students were proven better at maths, or if gay people made better artists, or if women were proven more intelligent than men.

    However, the first suggestion that the perceived majority group (straight white males) might be better than any minority, at anything, threatens us - just listen to the knee-jerk reaction of almost-unanimous disapproval.

    The experimental procedure and results haven't been published yet - nobody even knows what the numbers are, how the trial was conducted or even what IQ test(s) were used, and yet here we have people who know nothing but a soundbite about the final conclusion of the study, already feeling justified in ripping it to shreds.

    This has none of the justifications of considered intellectual doubt, and all of the hallmarks of instinctive emotional rejection.

    Regarding the researcher's other work, does this necessarily prove he's a bigot? Could he (in fact) be merely discovering unexpected and therefore interesting statistical trends?

    Racists claim that one race is unilaterally better than another, and this is (rightly) universally recognised as bad. However, wishful-thinking political correctness stipulates there's no difference between any groups of people, and this is clearly bullshit. Adults are stronger than kids. Men are generally stronger than women. Women are generally more empathic than men. And yes, black men on average have bigger (longer but thinner) penises than white men - look up the statistics.

    These facts have been statistically proven time and time again, yet because they don't fit with our prevailing ideology we pretend they don't exist. This is no less intellectually dishonest than creationists who selectively ignore evidence that contradicts their position.

    If we truly believing in science, mathematics and rationality means sometimes having to confront facts or possibilities that make us uncomfortable. Putting our hands over our ears and singing "Lalalalalala" is just as bad when we do it as when the ID or creationist crew do the same.

    Assuming the study's accurate and valid, does this mean that women are stupid? No, it means that the average woman is (almost unmeasurably) less "intelligent" (whatever that means) than the average man. It means that men are more likely to be geniuses, not that women can't be.

    Get down off your high-horses, reign in the emotion and behave in the same way we demand of the creationists - rational, sensible, and valuing Correct thoughts over Comfortable ones.

    --
    Everything in moderation, including moderation itself