Jan 30 2008

Language aptitude, multitasking, abstract reasoning

Published by Dougal at 12:03 am under Bad Science, Language, Society

I’m curious whether these memes have any basis in reality:

  • Men have better visual/spatial reasoning than women.
  • Women have better language skills than men.
  • Men have better abstract reasoning skills than women.
  • Women are better at multitasking than men.

I’ve googled lots but come up empty. Well, lots of people convinced of the truth of these statements but no-one with so much as a reference to follow up.

The women/language one is the only one I know a little about, in that the Daily Mail seems extraordinarily keen on repeating the pop-science myths which The Female Brain described — women talk more than men, etc.

Some information on the origins and veracity of these claims would be really interesting.

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