Extreme Men
The average IQs of adult men and women are about the same. But there are more men at the top levels of ability. And more males with very low IQs. The pattern with mental retardation is the same: as you go from mild to medium to extreme, the preponderance of males gets bigger.
The male distribution of height is also flatter, with more very tall and very short men.
Research by Jacquelynne Eccles has repeatedly concluded that the shortage of females in math and science reflects motivation more than ability.
Average gender differences in abilities tend to be extremely small. But there are significant differences in motivation. For example, Roy Baumeister’s survey of published research found that almost every measure and every study has shown higher sex drive in men.
And according to another study, over 80% of the people who work 50-hour weeks are men.
According to recent research using DNA analysis, today’s human population is descended from approximately twice as many women as men. Throughout the entire history of the human race, approximately 80% of women but only 40% of men reproduced.
Since women’s odds of reproducing have been good, the optimal strategy has been to minimize risks.
But most men who ever lived did not have descendants who are alive today.
Also, while few women have had more than a dozen children, some men have had hundreds.
If a group loses 1/2 its men, the next generation can still be full-sized. But if it loses 1/2 its women, the size of the next generation will be severely curtailed. Hence most cultures keep their women out of harm’s way while using men for risky jobs.
The US Department of Labor statistics report that 93% of the people killed on the job are men. Of the first 3,000 Americans killed in Iraq, 2,938 were men, 62 were women.
hey Roy, can I get a cite for that “recent study”? Inigo-Howlett@utc.edu