Sex Difference Research and Cognitive Abilities

Abstract

Overall, research finds no evidence for a smarter sex. However, sex differences in some specific cognitive tasks are found such as mental rotation (male advantage) or writing (female advantage). Males and females also perform similarly on many other tasks, suggesting that focusing on differences may ignore the many ways in which the sexes are similar. These sex differences describe groups, not individuals (e.g., many women excel in mental rotation tasks, many men excel in writing tasks). Sex differences in average mathematics test performance tend to be small, although males outnumber females among high scorers in most nations. Some spatial tasks such as mental rotation demonstrate remarkably robust and large male advantages; however, many other spatial tasks show no sex difference or, in one case, female advantage. Female advantages in reading and writing are moderate, global, and not decreasing. Both biological and environmental factors are necessary to explain these findings.