No, Not Sure I Believe This…
Well, I am sure that Greg Mankiw’s comment is correct, that Paul Irwing isn’t going to be President of Harvard anytime soon. He’s gone really a long way further than Larry Summers did to get himself fired before his resignation. Then Professor Summers was postulating that the distribution of intelligence amongst men was different from that amongst women. More astonishingly bright men (and incapably dumb ones) while women tended to cluster around the middle of the distribution.
Paul Irwing on the other hand seems to think that there is a difference in the distribution of intelligence between men and women. That men are, on average, as many as 5 IQ points (or 5% on average) more intelligent than women. Now before anyone gets outraged that I would even discuss such a matter perhaps I should point out that discussing anything is fine. It’s the conclusions that matter.
Let us, just for a moment, accept his conclusion. No, not that men are more intelligent, but that he does indeed find a difference in recorded IQs. Using our EQSQ personality tests I think we can show that this is in fact due to failings in the IQ tests, not to any difference in actual intelligence. Think of it this way. From our personality tests we find that just over a plurality of women have the female brain type. 17% have the male, the rest the balanced. The figures for men are different, 17% having the female brain type but fewer the balanced.
We also know that things like pattern recognition and spatial orientation are heavily male brain (or systemizing) traits. Now look at IQ tests. Yes, there are parts of them that deal with language, but much more of them are about pattern recognition. We might therefore say that IQ tests are deliberately designed to measure the male type of intelligence, not the female brain type. If we then find that men, on average, score better than women, umm, should we be exactly surprised by this?
December 7th, 2006 at 5:52 am
Do you think it might have more to do with male versus female personalities? Perhaps women are more willing to try the IQ test, even if they are not exceptionally bright. Maybe men are less willing to put their intelligence to the test unless they think they might ace it. Maybe more women than men simply like tests (and I’m not talking about Calc101 exams) - perhaps because tests have been ingrained in the female culture (think “Seventeen” and “Ms.” - “Quiz! Does Your Man Measure Up?”) or perhaps because of women’s increased empathy and desire for not only better understanding others but also better understanding themselves.
I like the “Seventeen” analogy best. I know many women who will buy a magazine purely for the quiz advertised on front. They are dying to know if their “Man Measures Up” or maybe dying answer the question: “Be Honest with Yourself! Is it You or Your Man Who is Afraid of Commitment”? Or even “Do You [woman] Measure Up…in Bed?”
Or “Does Your IQ Measure Up?”
December 8th, 2006 at 8:54 pm
A nice idea although how tough it it to answer whether you man measures up? All you need is a standard ruler, right? (Actually, there are special ones sold, where each inch is in fact about .75 of an inch, to give a man an ego boost!)
I’m sure there are differences in willingness to take tests: although a lot of the economic work that’s been done on such things show men to be more willing to compete, reveling almost in being measured against others. Perhaps not a sign of intelligence that, more status competition.
As to the measured differences in intelligence above I’d say that I’m dubious about whether they are in fact correctly measured, if they are, likely to be that male brain proficiency with pattern recognition and anyway, such differences in average intelligence don’t matter between sexes, when variation of intelligence amongst each sex goes from 60 or so to 200 or so.