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CHAPTER 4

Sex-Related Comparisons:

Observations

“How Different Are Male and Female Brains?” (Radford,DiscoveryNews, May 20, 2010)

“Why Do Women Chat More Than Men? (Haworth,The Scotsman,November 20, 2008)

“Men Are Better Than Women at Parking” (Harper, London Sunday Paper, December

20, 2009)

“The Boys Have Fallen Behind” (Kristof, New York Times , March 28, 2010)

T

hese are the headlines of stories that you commonly find about sex compari-

sons. Differences are interesting. Differences are eye-catching. And, as you will

see in this chapter, differences are often exaggerated and overinterpreted.

As mentioned in Chapter 1, the subject of sex comparisons is controversial.

Scientists continue to debate whether sex comparisons should be made. Regardless of

our philosophy on this issue, we cannot ignore the fact that a vast literature exists on

this topic. Many sex comparisons have been made in cognitive abilities: Who has bet-

ter spatial abilities? Who has greater aptitude in math? Are women or men better with

language? Sex comparisons have also been made in social domains: Is one sex more

empathic? Who helps more? Are men really more aggressive than women? The sexes

are also compared in terms of moral and social development. The primary goal of this

chapter is to review and evaluate the results of research on sex comparisons in a set of

cognitive and social domains. There are other areas of research in which sex compari-

sons have been made having to do with relationships and health which are addressed

in later chapters.

Before embarking on this review, you should realize that there are more simi-

larities than differences between men and women. However, there are some obvious,

incontestable differences. For example, men, on average, are taller than women; men,

on average, are stronger than women; women, by contrast, have a higher proportion

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