But, since I have you here anyway, I wanted to share two interesting studies which pose the same question: Are men smarter than women? Before you start throwing stuff at me, just read below and decide for yourself.
A recent study of 100,000 high school students showed that men have a 4-5 point IQ advantage over women. (This was reported by the Financial Express) Matt Katz from the Lansing State Journal is very happy about this in his article called Are Men Really The Smarter Sex?
Whoooh-hooo! We're No. 1!Take that women! What do you think of that? Now, before I really started rubbing it in to everyone here at the office, I ran into an article from CNN.COM. Apparently, men are smarter, except then it comes to going to the emergency room during the big game.
It has finally been proven that men are smarter than women. According to a study from Britain, men's IQ scores are five points higher than women's, and men are 5.5 times more likely to have a score of 155 (which means you're a genius).
Don't believe the British? In Canada, another study analyzing SAT scores found that males ages 17 and 18 are more intelligent than females.
A drop in the number of men going to the emergency room during sports broadcasts on TV is followed by a surge afterward, reports an ER doctor who reviewed case numbers over three years at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore.Oh well. I'm so disappointed. I thought that I found the answer to this time old question of who's smarter. I guess the research and the debate will continue.
16 comments:
I've always hated intelligence tests (and scored quite well on them). The reason is that it is impossible to quantify an abstract. The best an IQ test (or any other comprable exam) can do is guage is how well a person thinks whith reference to the notion of intelligence favored by the test writers. It assumes that all people follow the same mode of thought. That introduces bias.
Since IQ tests are largely products of western philosophy, which has been dominated by males, there will be a bias toward "western" educated males. It's virtually impossible to guage the extent of the bias; hence, I don't like IQ tests.
As an interesting aside, there should also be the possibility that ways of thinking would result in "artificially" high scores.
My wife has noted that when the TV is going on, there is nothing short of a nuclear explosion that can distract me away from it (even if it is a Cheez-Wiz commercial). I think this is due to my higher mental processing powers, but she thinks it is subliminal hypnotic messages sent to only men. I can see from this that men watching sports would have a hard time leaving. We are so fascinated by the mathematic calculations regarding the trajectory of the ball, the gravitational effect on the ball in relation to the velocity, and wondering if there is any Cheez-wiz, that we get distracted. So what about the blindness in one eye and the slurred speech. There are more important things! It's just a good thing there was not a TV on when these men took the IQ tests.
So why we wouldn't we have thrown those tests? At the secret national women's meeting we had decided to let you guys have that one. Damn, I just said something about the secret meeting! I just can't keep a secret. Anyway, I was really amazed that there was only a 4 - 5 point difference in the results. I mean we really threw those tests, hardly even tried....keep studying, boys.
well just when i was feeling smart! (i converted to beta today)
and now i find out i am too dumb to do it. i sure wish they had told me before i tried! yeesh... bee
Hey doc.
You suck. ED is a common and serious issue. Do more to help those having a hard time.
For the previous commentor:
Those having a "hard time" don't need help!
Oooh ... my bad!!! *blush*
>;o)
HA!! You know, as my dad took me to the ER on Monday night, I had to wait a pretty long time, and all the nurses and docs were saying that it had been extremely busy that day. From being a former ER employee in the same ER, I knew that Mondays were usually busy because people waited through the weekend and then hit up the ER on Monday when the time for fun was over. But this particular Monday was a lot more crowded than usual. Wanna know my theory as to why? EAGLES VS. DALLAS!!!
I have a funny story about IQ tests. When I lived just outside St. Louis, the "gifted" program started in kindergarten...or could start in kindergarten, anyways. Well, my mom taught me to read when I was in preschool, and I loved to count well past whatever we were required to count to...I've always been a learning nut...so they had me have this little interview which consisted of a verbal IQ test for 5 year olds. The first thing they asked us to do was count as high as we could. So here's what happened:
Me: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10...
Interviewer: Can you go any higher?
Me: Yeah...
Interviewer: Well why don't you?
Me: Cuz I don't feel like it!
Ohhhh my mom was so pissed at me!! They talked to my mother who had a talk with me, and then I had to do it again....and sure 'nough, I did get in the program. My mom would actually never ever tell my brother or I what our IQ's were (I guess she didn't want competition or bad feelings depending on if there was any difference), but I've taken a decent amount of IQ tests over the years...both on paper and on the internet. I find that sometimes my score can fluctuate by 20 points or so, depending on the test. So I have a hard time thinking that just one IQ test used in one study may depict a person's only accurate score. Maybe we have more of a range than just a single score? Just a thought!
Here's a rather amusing post by Roy at Shrink Rap on a very similar topic to ED: Stopping the Scourge of PE hehehe....
Anon - please lighten up - Dr. A. IS a good doctor and works way more than he should to help people every day. He was just making a joke...not doing it to intentionally offend anyone...
Here’s some advice for all you guys out there that may—or may not—be smarter than women. If you are having a heated disagreement with a woman, stop and ask yourself, do you want to be right or do you want to have * (cough) * “privileges.” A smart man knows how to answer that question.
If men are so smart....why can't they ever find anything? Seems to me the smarter person (aka wife) usually "thinks" of the correct place to look for the lost item(s).
Ellie
I think Harry Belafonte settled this question in song long ago :)
I haven't read that study you listed but all of the other studies in the past pretty much say that men and women have the same average IQ. So I wouldn't change my mind based on this one study.
Moreover, it's important to note that men tend to dominate the extreme ends of the IQ spectrum, so a mere "average" is not necessarily a fair display.
In other words, suppose it IS true that there a lot of men who score exceptinally high on IQ tests (geniuses and savants), there are ALSO a lot of men who score exceptionally LOW.
Some men are very smart AND some men are very very very dumb. When comparing ourselves to women, we need to remember the issue of "variance"
I'll settle the debate right here: intellectually speaking, men may have the edge. I will concede that point. But when it comes to common sense...sorry fellows. Women have it.
If men have a higher IQ, then women have a higer EQ (Emotional Quotient). And the latter is what gives women the edge. :p
Menn arr Smardt.
I reD that inn a buk.
yayy fer us!
This is war, Dr. A. And I was so trying to promote peace in the blogosphere.
"At the age of eleven or thereabouts women acquire a poise and an ability to handle difficult situations which a man, if he is lucky, manages to achieve somewhere in the later seventies."
- PG Wodehouse
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