EMERGENCE OF GENDER DIFFERENCES: COGNITIVE ABILITIES

[For each cognitive ability, one or more meta-analyses exist. To be consistent throughout, a d that is positive will
indicate men outperform women, and a d that is negative will indicate women outperform men.]

Spatial Ability
• Spatial skills involve the ability to think about and reason using mental pictures rather than words. However,
spatial ability is not a single construct. Think of all the activities that involve spatial skills: reading maps, doing
jigsaw puzzles, trying to pack all your belongings from school into the trunk of a car, and finding where you put
your keys.
• Given the diversity of tasks that involve spatial skills, it is no surprise that the results of sex comparisons depend
on the type of spatial skill.
• Voyer, Voyer, and Bryden (1995) conducted a meta-analysis on the three distinct spatial skills. They found
moderate sex differences for spatial perception (d=+.44) and mental rotation (d=+.56), but only a small difference
for spatial visualization (d = +.19).
• Thus the size of the sex difference in spatial skills ranged from very small to medium, depending on the particular
skill.

• Since the publication of this metaanalysis, recent studies have confirmed this finding. These sex differences held
even when and male technology students with a similar high school background in math and physics female were
compared.
• Thus, sex differences in spatial abilities do not appear to be disappearing with time.
• The sex difference in mental rotation is largest and stable over time, causing it to receive the most research
attention.
• Investigators have wondered whether part of this sex difference is due to women and men using different
strategies to manipulate objects. It appears that men use what has been called a leaping strategy, whereas women
use a conservative strategy.
• The respondent is asked to find which of the four response stimuli correspond to the standard stimulus. The idea is
that men find the two matching stimuli and then move on to the next item on the test, whereas women examine all
four stimuli to ensure that they have found the correct matches which takes more time.

• A spatial domain in which women appear to have greater aptitude than men is object location memory.
• A meta-analysis of 36 studies on object identity memory and object location memory showed that women
outperform men on both (object identity d = +.23; object location d = +.27; Voyer et al., 2007).
• Sex differences in object location seemed to depend on participant age and the type of object. That is, sex
differences were larger among participants over 13 years of age compared to younger participants.
• Women outperformed men when objects were feminine or neutral, but men outperformed women when objects
were masculine.
• One conclusion is that men are better at manipulating objects in space, and women are better at locating objects. If
true, these differences could lead men and women to give directions differently. Two studies have found that
women are more likely to use landmarks, and men are more likely to use distances and north/south/east/west
terminology when giving directions (Dabbs et al., 1998; Lawton, 2001).

Mathematical Ability
• Two older meta-analytic reviews from the 1990s concluded there was a small sex difference in math ability
favoring males. In a meta-analysis of 100 studies on math skills, Hyde, Fennema, and Lamon (1990) found an
overall effect size of d=+.15, favoring males over females but noted that sex differences were decreasing with
time.
• When sex differences in math are found, researchers often point to the fact that part of this overall effect is due to
men being more likely than women to have really high math scores. Men are more likely than women to be in the
very upper end of the math distribution.
• However, Halpern and colleagues (2007) caution that even this statistic is changing. Among those who scored
above 700 on the SAT math exam, the ratio of male to female was 13:1 20 years ago, but it is 2.8:1 today.
• There is a paradox when it comes to gender and math. Males perform better than females on math achievement
tests, such as the SAT, but females receive better math grades in school (Royer & Garofoli, 2005).
• Why do women perform better than men in school? One reason may be that girls and boys approach their
schoolwork differently (Kenney-Benson et al., 2006). Girls have a more mastery-oriented style (I do math to
improve my skills), whereas boys have a more performance-oriented style (I do math to show my teacher I’m
smarter than the other students).
• In a study of fifth graders, sex differences in orientation predicted math grades 2 years later. They also found that
girls were less likely than boys to be disruptive in class. The combination of having a mastery orientation and
being less disruptive in the classroom was linked to girls’ higher math grades.

• Regardless of whether there are sex differences in math aptitude, there is a clear sex difference in attitudes toward
math.
Crosscultural research has shown that eighth grade males have more positive attitudes toward math than females
across 49 different countries (Else-Quest et al., 2010). Males are more self-confident (d = +.15) than females and
value math more than females (d = +.10).

Verbal Ability
• Sex differences in verbal ability are among the first cognitive abilities to be noticed (Halpern, 2000).
• On average, girls talk earlier than boys and develop larger vocabularies and better grammar than boys.
• In an older meta-analysis of 165 studies that evaluated verbal ability, a very small effect emerged (d = -.11), in the
direction of women outperforming men (Hyde & Linn, 1988). The investigators examined several types of verbal
ability, including vocabulary, analogies, reading comprehension, and essay writing. All the effect sizes were
small, except for speech production; in that case, there was a moderate effect of female superior performance (d =
-.33).

• There is one verbal ability in which a large sex difference exists: writing (Halpern et al., 2007).
• Like math ability, the size of the sex difference in verbal skills depends on the population studied.
• Sex differences are larger when people with verbal difficulties are examined (Hyde & McKinley, 1997). Boys are
more likely than girls to have dyslexia, which generally involves difficulties with reading, writing, and spelling
(Chan et al., 2007), and boys are more likely than girls to stutter (McKinnon, McLeod, & Reilly, 2007; Proctor et
al., 2008).
• Shaywitz and colleagues (1990) followed 445 kindergartners in the state of Connecticut through third grade. They
found that schools were two to four times more likely to identify second-grade boys as reading-disabled compared
to girls—a significant difference, but researchers identified similar percentages of boys and girls as reading-
disabled using objective criteria.
• Teachers viewed reading-disabled boys as overactive and having more behavioral problems compared to non-
readingdisabled boys. Teachers’ views of boys’ behavior may have influenced their judgments of the boys’
reading ability.

• Again, researchers have concluded that sex differences in verbal ability depend on the specific domain. Most
differences are small, but some, such as differences in writing ability, are more substantive. The sex difference
may be larger when people with verbal difficulties are considered.

Comprehensive Assessment of Cognitive Abilities

• Regardless of the magnitude of sex differences, one thing upon which researchers agree is that males have more
variability in their distribution of scores on cognitive abilities than females. Thus, slightly more males than
females are at both the higher and lower ends of the distribution.
• One theory of general intelligence suggests that there are two dimensions of intelligence, one being an image-
rotation versus verbal dimension and one being a focus of attention versus diffusion of attention dimension
(Johnson & Bouchard,
2007).
• The first dimension ranges from image rotation skills that involve shape manipulation such as the mental rotation
task to verbal abilities.
• The attention dimension ranges from abilities that require a focus of attention to abilities that require attention to a
variety of stimuli simultaneously.
• A study of 18- to 79-year-old adult twins who were reared apart showed that women are more likely to be located
in the verbal diffuse quadrant, whereas men are more likely to be located in the image focus quadrant.

• Sex differences in most cognitive domains have decreased over time. It is not clear whether one sex is improving,
another sex is deteriorating, or more recent studies are more methodologically sound. Standardized tests may be
less biased today than they were 30 years ago.
• It is also possible that the political climate has contributed to the decrease in sex differences. The atmosphere has
shifted from emphasizing to minimizing sex differences. The political climate may be a reaction to a true decline
in differences, or this climate may contribute to a greater publication of studies that show no differences.

GENDER DIFFERENCES IN SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR

Empathy
• Empathy is defined in many ways, but at its core, it seems to involve feeling the same emotion as another person
or feeling sympathy or compassion for another person.
• Sex differences in empathy, like sex differences in cognition, depend on how empathy is measured.
• The one meta-analysis that has been conducted on empathy was conducted quite some time ago, and showed
across 259 studies a sex difference in empathy, favoring females (d=-18; Eisenberg & Fabes, 1998).
• Despite the fact that the meta-analysis is dated, there are some lessons we can learn from it in regard to
moderator variables.
• First, the sex difference was greater when empathy was measured by self-report than by observation. One
concern with self-report measures is demand characteristics. Undoubtedly, men and women realize that women
are supposed to be more empathic than men. Thus women and men may distort their self-reports of behavior in
the direction of gender-role norms.
• Sex differences were larger when measures of kindness and consideration were used rather than measures of
instrumental help.
• Third, the sex difference was larger in correlational and naturalistic than experimental studies.
• Finally, the sex difference was larger if the empathy target was an adult rather than a child, indicating that
women and men respond more similarly to children.
Helping Behavior
• According to an older meta-analysis of helping behavior (Eagly & Crowley, 1986), the effect was in the direction
of males helping more than females (d = +.34). The 172 studies in this review measured actual helping behavior or
the self-report of a commitment to engage in a helping behavior; in other words, self-reports of general
helpfulness were not included.
• The sex difference was limited to a certain kind of help, however. That is, the situation was a moderator variable:
Males were more likely than females to help in situations of danger.

• Literature concludes that men are more likely than women to help in situations of danger or emergencies, but that
women are more likely than men to help within the context of relationships (Dovidio & Penner, 2001) and in
nonthreatening situations such as volunteering (U.S. Department of Labor, 2009a).
• Thus, women and men are more likely to help in situations congruent with their gender roles.
• Women’s help is communal (caring for an individual), and men’s help is agentic (caring to gain status, heroic
helping, and helping the group; Eagly, 2009).
• Sex differences were stronger under public conditions, where others could view the behavior, than under private
conditions, where the behavior was anonymous.
• Females and males may behave differently in the presence of others because they are concerned with adhering to
genderrole norms. In situations of danger, we expect men to provide help and women to receive help.
Aggression
1. Sex of Perpetrator.
• Observational studies of children confirm sex differences in aggression at an early age, and these differences
generalize across cultures (Munroe et al., 2000).
• Boys are more likely than girls to use weapons and are more likely than girls to carry a weapon to school (Cao,
Zhang, & He, 2008).
• Adolescent boys report a greater acceptance of aggression compared to girls and are more likely to use aggression
to solve problems (Garaigordobil et al., 2009).
• A meta-analytic review of sex comparisons showed that men were more aggressive than women (Bettencourt &
Miller, 1996).
• Sex differences in verbal aggression were less consistent than sex differences in physical aggression.
• Sex differences in aggression also seem to appear early in life. In a study of 17-month-olds, parents reported that
boys were more likely than girls to kick, hit, and bite (Baillargeon et al., 2007). Boys were also 2.5 times more
likely than girls to be classified as highly aggressive. The sex difference in aggression remained the same when
these children were followed for 1 year.
• One important situational factor is provocation, which may release women from the constraints the female gender
role places on aggressive behavior. The stronger the provocation, the smaller the sex difference.
• Another situational variable that has been investigated is the emotional arousal generated by the situation. Because
males may be more easily aroused than females and less able to regulate their emotions, Knight and colleagues
(2002) predicted that sex differences in aggression would be minimal in situations of no/low or very high
emotional arousal and maximal in situations of medium emotional arousal.

2. Sex of Victim.
• Men are not only more likely than women to be the perpetrators of aggression, but they are also more likely than
women to be the victims of aggression. Men are more likely than women to report being victims of physical
aggression.
• In a study of college students, men were twice as likely to report having been kicked, bitten, hit by a fist, and hit
by another object (Harris, 1996). Men were three times as likely to report being threatened with a gun or knife.
• Women and men also respond differentially to others based on status. A laboratory study showed that women
were more aggressive toward a low-status than a high-status person, whereas men were more aggressive toward a
high status than a lowstatus person (Terrell, Hill, & Nagoshi, 2008)— but this held only for men and women who
were evaluated as aggression-prone.

Sexuality
• Petersen and Hyde (2010) conducted two meta-analyses on sexual attitudes and sexual behaviors, one on 834
independent samples and one on 7 large national surveys conducted between 1993 and 2007. Most of these studies
were conducted in the United States and Europe.
• Results from both meta-analyses showed that men, compared to women, report more sexual partners (study 1: d =
+.36; study 2: d = +.15), more casual sex (d = +.38; d = +.18), more frequent masturbation (d = +.53; d = +.58),
and greater use of pornography (d = +.63; d = +.46).
• Small differences appeared for the sex difference in sexual satisfaction (d = +.17; d = +.19), condom use (d =
+.15; d = +. 15), oral sex (d = +.06; d = +.16), and attitudes toward premarital sex (d = +.17; d = +.10)— all in the
direction of sexual behavior being greater in men than women.
• The one exception was the frequency of same-sex sexual behavior which was small but in the direction of females
more than males (d = -.05; d = -.03).
• In terms of attitudes, one area in which sex differences are found is attitudes toward homosexuality. Women
reported more favorable attitudes than men toward gay men (study 1: d = -.18; study 2: d = -.14), but there were
no sex differences in attitudes toward lesbians (d = -.02; d = +.06).

• People who score high on high on hypermasculinity (extreme masculinity), have traditional gender-role attitudes,
have a greater desire for dominance, and score high on benevolent or modern sexism have the most negative
 attitudes toward homosexuality (Kite & Whitley, 2003; Whitley & Egisdottir, 2000). This is not surprising
because homosexual behavior is a threat to traditional beliefs about men’’s and women’s roles.
• Men are less tolerant than women of homosexuality because violation of the male gender role has more negative
consequences. Because the male gender role has a higher status in our society, there is more to lose by violating
the role.

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GENDER DIFFERENCES IN AFFECTIVE BEHAVIOUR 


The Experience of Emotion

• First, we can ask whether women and men experience emotions similarly.
• Many investigators argue that men and women have similar emotional experiences. Ekman (1992) points out that
there is a universal set of emotions that both men and women experience and common facial expressions that
generalize across the two sexes as well as across different cultures.
• Women say that they experience emotions more intensely than men and that they let emotions influence their
decisions (van Middendorp et al., 2005).
• In a nationally representative sample, participants were asked how often they felt a variety of emotions (Simon &
Nath, 2004). Although there was no sex difference in the frequency of emotions experienced, men were more
likely than women to report positive emotions and women were more likely than men to report negative emotions.
• One study showed that women scored higher than men on a test of emotion complexity and differentiation, which
suggests that women have more complicated representations of emotion (Feldman, Sussman, & Zigler, 2000).
• Cross-cultural research also has examined whether there are sex differences in the experience of emotion. Across
37 countries, there was no sex difference in the experience of the powerful emotions (e.g., anger; Fischer et al.,
2004).
• However, women around the world were more likely than men to report the powerless emotions—namely, fear,
sadness, shame, and guilt.

The Expression of Emotion

• Despite men’s and women’s similar experiences of emotion, considerable evidence supports sex differences in the
expression of emotion (Brody & Hall, 2008).
• Women report they are more emotionally expressive than men. Self-report data are hardly convincing, however,
because women and men are clearly aware of the stereotypes that women are emotional and expressive and men
are not emotional and inexpressive.
• When men and women experience similar emotions, physiological measures reveal greater facial activity in the
female face providing evidence of greater expressiveness (Thunberg & Dimberg, 2000).
• Gender roles have been related to the expression of emotion and often show stronger relations than the
respondent’s sex. Femininity or communion, specifically, has been associated with emotional expression (Brody
& Hall, 1993).
• Two studies have associated androgyny with emotional expression. In a study that compared androgynous,
masculine, and feminine persons, androgynous persons were found to be more emotionally expressive than
masculine persons, and feminine persons fell between the two groups (Kring & Gordon, 1998).
• The relation of androgyny to the expression of such a variety of emotions may have to do with the fact that
androgyny incorporates both femininity and masculinity, which are each linked to the expression of different
emotions: Androgyny includes femininity, which is associated with expressions of love, happiness, and sadness,
along with masculinity, which is associated with expressions of anger and hate.

Attributions for Emotion

• Regardless of the data, the stereotype of women as the more emotional sex persists. This is supported by research
on the attributions people make for women’s and men’s emotions.
• Women’s emotions are more likely to be attributed to internal states, whereas men’s emotions are more likely to
be attributed to situational factors.
• Even when situational attributions are given for a person’s emotional state, people tend to believe that women are
“emotional” and men are “having a bad day” (Barrett & Bliss-Moreau, 2009).
• A laboratory study showed that both women and men view the expression of anger positively when it comes from
a male job candidate but negatively when it comes from a female job candidate (Brescoll & Uhlmann, 2008).
• Respondents granted higher status and higher salary to an angry than a sad male job candidate, but lower status
and lower salary to an angry than a sad female job candidate.
• Differential attributions explained these findings. Again, the female’s anger displays were attributed to internal
causes (being an emotional person), whereas the male’s anger displays were attributed to situational causes
(someone made him angry).