Sunday, October 08, 2006

Men more intelligent than women


This came out last month:

A recent study proves it is "very likely" that the reason women have difficulty rising to the top in their careers is because they are less intelligent than men, according to controversial University of Western Ontario psychologist J. Philippe Rushton.

This is something that few people ever seem to realise: the fact that the male IQ stats are unfairly biased in a downward direction by the inclusion of effectively brain damaged individuals within the data.

If you were giving a list of the maximum speed of different models of cars, would you include those cars which were not functioning within your stats?

If you were giving a list of the average walking speed of different nationalities would you include those who didn't have legs as = 0mph? If, for example, you had a country in which a large number of people had had their legs blown off by landmines, you can see how such a ridiculous inclusion would bias the stats downward and make it appear that people were actually walking slower in that country.

Similarly, baby boys are more likely to be born with brain damage of various kinds than baby girls are. This biases the average male IQ downwards.

Additionally (and unfortunately I don't have a link for this, so you'll have to trust me) a number of times I've read psychologists who say that the IQ tests are deliberately structured in order to ensure that both males and females average at 100. We also recently caught out the website of 'Psychology Today' for sneekily deducting several points off any IQ test result that was filled in by a man. The effect of such artificial tinkering with the scoring masks the possibility that men are more intelligent on average.

What we are saying here is not just that the male population has a wider distribution of scores, but that the male mean average IQ itself is higher than that of women.

To those who might ask what is the significance of 4 IQ points higher: this has a huge significance across populations. Not least because it alone could account for the greater number of men in positions of intellectual eminence.

2 comments:

Damaris said...

The professor -- already criticized for claiming that whites are intellectually superior to blacks, and that higher AIDS rates in Africa are due to a more insatiable sexual appetite in the black community -- believes the "glass ceiling" phenomenon is probably due to innate ability rather than discrimination.

Anonymous said...

I tripped over this whilst looking for something else - and I know I'm late with a comment - but honestly, can't we just treat people as individuals, some of whom, irrespective of sex, are brighter than others? From each according to his/her abilities and inclinations seems a good way to run a society. Yes, I'm a woman, but as I have a measured IQ of 3 and a bit standard deviations above the mean, biased test or not I reckon I'd wipe the floor with most of your readers. And yes, I can read maps, I can parallel park and I'm currently planning my PhD in IT.

Oh, and I'm married with kids. Some men aren't quite as prejudiced as you...