UCL in the News: Men think they're cleverer, claims psychologist

Prof Adrian Furnham [UCL Psychology] has analysed the results of 25 studies of sex differences in IQ. …

The studies show women tend to give significantly lower estimates than men of their own intelligence - about five IQ points - while men tend to overestimate their brain power. …

For men, it tends to be those average-to-dim males who overestimate their intelligence, while often very bright women who fail to rank their own IQ tend to underestimate the difference.

What is surprising, Prof Furnham adds, is that both men and women tend to think their grandfathers are brighter than grandmothers, fathers brighter than mothers and sons brighter than daughters. …

Prof Furnham adds that there is general agreement that men and women do differ in specialised features of intellectual development.

Men excel in spatial awareness, which underpins navigation and numerical skills.

Women do better in "emotional intelligence" and language development. …

Another view is that the perceived difference between men and women rests on the distribution of IQ: both men and women tend to have the same average IQ but there are more very dim men, and a corresponding number of super bright ones to compensate. …