If you’re at a dull dinner party and you want to spice things up, the
topic of gender usually works a treat. Which sex is more intelligent?
Do women really talk more than men? Thanks to the popularity of
books like John Gray’s Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus
it’s easy to forget that we’re even members of the same species.
Yet human we all are. Women and men alike feel emotion, need
sleep, enjoy sex, form friendships and appreciate art. On the other
hand, there are also real differences between the sexes, rooted in
biology and manifested psychologically. Another topic that seems
to endlessly fascinate is animal intelligence and the question of
what, if anything, makes humans unique. Chimps aren’t likely to win
a Nobel prize anytime soon, but the dividing lines between animal
and human cognition are not as pronounced as they once seemed.
Where gender difference begins
It’s the all-important Y-chromosome that sets the foetus on the path
to masculinity. Testes develop, testosterone is released, and as a conse-
quence, men tend to be more aggressive and to take more risks. They
have a greater fondness for casual sex and pornography. Despite the
“man flu” jibes, they’re also more tolerant of pain and more willing to
fight physically for their status and reputation. Women, by contrast, tend
to have more empathy and to have more intimate friendships. They’re
also about twice as prone to depression.
In terms of the brain, the differences are subtle, but they do
exist. Men generally have bigger brains (by eight to ten percent)