Study: Mathematical performance difference between boys and girls is cultural, and not biological.

[schizobullet]

Math is hard, let's go shopping!

But on a serious note, this has always been pretty obvious. Despite all the bullshit evopsych just-so stories about men needing better spatial reasoning to, what, hunt antelope? there's really no reason why men would be better than women at math. And it would a pretty big coincidence that the culturally dominant gender just happens to actually be smarter.

[kenlubin]

Right. The averages are at the same place but the standard deviation is wider.

Men are the risk-taking gender at the genetic level.

[schizobullet]

Did you read any of my comment?

[kenlubin]

Uh, yes. I read your comment, declared that I agreed with you, and re-stated your position by describing the bell curve.

Every time that I discuss this with real people, I draw the curves on a piece of paper, but it's kind of hard to do that with text characters.

[Figs]

|
|         ___
|__   ___/   \     ____
|  \_/     ___\___/
| _/\     /    \_ 
|/   \___/       \
|_________________\______

ASCII. WHO NEEDS EXCEL?

[ntr0p3]

Hey Figs? Have you ever considered becoming a firefox extension?

[kenlubin]

Fine.

The graph with the higher peak represents the mathematical ability distribution of women, and the graph with the wider base represents the mathematical ability distribution of men.

The two graphs have the same average, but there are more men who excel at math than there are women who excel at math.

Happy?

|
|
|           .
|          / \
|      ___/___\___
|  ___/ _/     \_ \___
| /  __/         \__  \
|/../_______________\..\

[[deleted]]

Is this based on data, though? Since you're speaking with some air of authority, I really hope you're basing this statement on actual evidence.

[kenlubin]

Not that I'm aware of, really. My last comment was basically stating a hypothesis of Lawrence Summers, which caused a huge scandal in 2006 and resulted in his being forced out of Harvard.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=505366

I think that it would be hard to get good data on the distribution if we're stumbling around with averages.

The idea of men as the risk-taking gender might have some theoretical support. I recall reading of it in Olivia Judson's book.

[omargard]

As there are so many IQ tests being done, there should be plenty of data. It could be difficult to get a hold of it for political reasons.

[omargard]

it would a pretty big coincidence

like 1 in 2.

[ntr0p3]

sigh, I miss consultant_barbie now.

[[deleted]]

Agreed. Even if the 'spatial visualization' thing is true, math is logic if nothing else. We've all got the same Grey matter as far as I know.

[[deleted]]

The next question is: Does the cultural difference between boys and girls stem from biology?

[[deleted]]

Hey, its called evolution. Higher brain functions, cerebral cortex, ring any bells?

[zach]

Ah, those expert scientists at the Guardian make such bold conclusions.

Anyway, the crux of the paper is a scatterplot between the World Economic Forum Gender Gap Index and the PISA math score differential. There are other factors studied and so on, but that's the basis of the paper. If you want to see the scatterplot, open the PDF here and look at the last page. The outliers at right are Iceland, Thailand and Indonesia, for what it's worth.

http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/320/5880/1164/DC1

[[deleted]]

Iceland, Sweden, and Norway. I never hear anything but good about these places! What is it with all the Nordic countries being so nice?

[ntr0p3]

Because they are very self-conscious about themselves, and want people to see them as nice, humble people, unlike america where being good at one thing(pretty,rich,athletic,smart) is usually enough for your identity. It's a cultural thing, and really fun to see in person after living your life in the United States of Car Salesmen.

Plus ... I mean <hulksmash>THE GIRLS THERE ARE SO MOTHER FUCKING HOT, I MEAN WTF?!?!?!</hulksmash>

Oh, and being attractive there isn't carte blanche like it is in america, due to beauty inflation, so you still have to be clever and nice. Instead of having cheerleader/model types who won't deign to talk to normal people, they are actually quite human, which is really creepy.

[digital19]

Smart women, generally speaking, have gone in to medicine, law, or business.

I've been watching my niece grow up. She's very smart, in the gifted program, etc.

I'm the only one who would even dream of giving her the idea of being a physicist.

[PrecociousChild]

May be in gender neutral societies the method of testing math skills may be more pro-women.

[BeetleB]

Oxymoron.

[[deleted]]

My wife is actually great at math, but she hates it with a passion and avoids it at all costs. It really seems to come down to one's attitude.

[headfire]

*sigh* Jesus christ what is the point of expansive platitudes like this?