For the past few days I've been blogging on racial differences in the short and long distance Olympic races. I noted Jon Entine's argument that such differences may have a biological origin, a taboo subject because once we start talking about physical differences, perhaps some people might then begin to suspect differences of intelligence between the races.
In my book The End of Racism I argued against such differences, noting instead that culture is a far better explanation of ethnic differences in intellectual achievement and economic performance. But when we turn to the issue of men and women, I note an anomaly.
No one denies that men are taller and stronger than women on average. This explains of course why competitive sports is based on the "separate but equal" principle. Men play against men, and women play against women. Segregation on the basis of gender appears to have an obvious rational basis in physical contests of speed and strength.
Yet one of my favorite games, namely chess, is not such a contest. Rather, chess is entirely based on intellectual capacity. It involves planning, calculation, strategy. One would assume that since men and women are equally intelligent, therefore women should be fully competive with men in chess. But it is not so. Consider: of the top 100 players in the USA currently, only two are women. Even more startling, of the top 100 chess players in the world today, only one is a woman.
So embarrassing is male over-representation at the top level that most chess competitions today are divided into two categories. There is a general category that is almost inevitably won by a man, and then there is a separate women's championship obviously designed to give women a chance to succeed as well. Currently there is a World Chess Champion and a World Women's Champion. Somehow the chess world seem to have adjusted to the reality that int his particular mental contest, women simply aren't as good as men.
Can culture account for the difference between the sexes? Actually no. Culture can help to explain why certain countries like Russia are more dominant in chess. They simply play a lot more chess over there. But culture doesn't explain why Russian males are so much better than Russian females in chess. I am not aware of an historical exclusion of women from chess, and even if there was some past discrimination, how come women still fare so poorly in an age of equality? Of the top 20 junior chess players in the world, there isn't a single woman. So in these respects the cultural explanation falters.
Are we forced to conclude then that men are smarter than women, at least when it comes to chess? Not really. The average IQ of both groups is 100. But when it comes to the bell curve distribution, an interesting difference emerges. The female bell curve is taller and narrower, with the vast majority of women bunched in the middle. The male bell curve is shorter and flatter, with more men at both ends of the distribution. What this means is that there are more male geniuses and more male morons. And this would effectively account for why at the very top level of an intellectual contest like chess, we find far more men than women.
Reader Comments ( Page 1 of 15)
1. In my experience,there really is not much difference brainwise.I personally have met and known women who were brainier than men.But research also shows that women are intelligent in a way differrent from men.
By the way,if men are more intelligent than women,why do they outnumber us men on college campuses?Intelligence or a case of who values a education more.
On a final note:I read an article that states that girls pay attention in class better than boys.Maybe it is all down to the attention span.I know as a boy it sure is difficult to pay attention.
mad african christian at 7:10AM on Aug 24th 2008
2. I feel as if you haven't considered the socialization of women to be meek, ornamental, and timid; when you discuss gender, you discuss the socialized being rather than the biological being; i.e. male or female sex. Women are groomed to be non-competitive in this country, and, for the most part, abroad. I think that when you raise an argument like this one, you cannot assume that based on number of participants in a sport, such as chess, because men outnumber women, they are, therefore, smarter. Your argument is based on quantity rather than quality.
Gender, which is the masculine, the feminine, the pink blanket, the football at birth, cannot be ignored in this case. And, of course, gender is rooted in culture and shaped to be what the culture dictates. One cannot conclude that because more men participate in games, such as chess, that they are somehow smarter; if volunteering, or being groomed for certain competitive behavior, is the criteria for making someone more intelligent, then I believe you've proven your case.
Angel Linteau at 8:20AM on Aug 24th 2008
3. I love to play chess very much, but I wouldn't use a chess game for an intellect scale.
I use the rubix's cube. lol
Observant at 8:26AM on Aug 24th 2008
4. Really? REALLY? PA-THET-IC. But typical of DD, take a single trivial fact (more men play chess than women) and expand it into some grand generalization (men are smarter), and as always, sprinkle with saccharine flakes of DD’s arrogance (I am a superior being, I like chess, chess is an indicator of superiority). Blah, blah, blah. I wonder if this douche bag smells his ever-growing insignificance?
People are always going to want the entertainment of (or the justification for) self-righteous nastiness; but DD’s smarmy star is fading, soon to go the way of armpit dress pads, and sanitary napkin belts. Kinda gross and ultimately unnecessary
fed up at 8:34AM on Aug 24th 2008
5. Observant: we agree on something! Chess is simply a game that requires a certain capacity to excel at. Dinesh is just making a broad generalization, like usual, that men are smarted than women), then he defines "smarter" as being better at chess.
At least he moves away from chess and on to compare male and female average IQ, but of course he doesn't mention any of the criticisms and problems of the IQ testing that have come up over the last couple decades such as western and male bias.
In short, intelligence is more than IQ or the ability to play chess. But probably not in Dinesh's world.
Ryan Anderson at 8:38AM on Aug 24th 2008
6. Just In.... The PBS SCIENCE PROGRAM NOVA JUST confirmed the reality of the Dinosaur Soft tissue discovery contained with Dinosaur DNA. Even though for years Evolutionists mocked the notion as impossible because the ATHEISTS ASSUMED the bones HAD to be millions of years old, NOVA recently has unwittingly confirmed evidence of what intelligent scientists had been saying for years and suffered criticism over.
The fact that such material really does exist when Darwinists for years ignored and even mocked the soft tissue evidence as faked. This evidence combined with evidence that petrification and fossilization does not necessarily take millions of years to form, inherently challenges a foundational argument for its vast degree of antiquity.
You can now watch the video and more on the RIGHT SIDE PANEL AREA OF THE SITE BELOW in the area dealing with dinosaur discoveries.
http://www.evolutionfacts.blogspot.com
ISSAC ASIMOV at 8:46AM on Aug 24th 2008
7.
ATHEISM: A CATASTROPHIC FAILURE
http://www.evolutionfacts.blogspot
ISSAC ASIMOV at 3:35PM on Aug 24th 2008
8. I think men have a superior physical strength that over time women found that if they played dumber they got the crap beat out of them less. So after millions of years playing dumb we allowed men to think they are mentally smarter.
When all the 'religious books' allow beating and enslavement of women (yes even in the christian bible) we see men aren't smarter just meaner....
emanon at 8:56AM on Aug 24th 2008
9. DD's conclusion is false.
For a numerical comparison of two populations, men and women, the number of women has to equal the number of men. With that as a given, if according to DD there are more morons among men than women, and the women's bell curve is taller, then the women population is more intellectual.
curious at 9:04AM on Aug 24th 2008
10. Another Scandal and nightmare for Darwinists that is on the rise is the HOAX OF THE HUMAN HOBBIT
http://www.evolutionfacts.blogspot.com/#HOBBIT_HOAX
Along with...
ATHEISM: A CATASTROPHIC FAILURE
http://www.evolutionfacts.blogspot.com
ISSAC ASIMOV at 9:06AM on Aug 24th 2008
11. Curious: "DD's conclusion is false"
They almost always are.
Ryan Anderson at 9:27AM on Aug 24th 2008
12. If men are smarter than women, why are there more young women in college than men, and some colleges have affirmative action programs for men with lower SAT scores. One could argue that all the "progressive" education is against boys especially.
David Blankenship at 9:28AM on Aug 24th 2008
13.
Are catholics less moral than other christians? Consider the number of pedophile priests, as compared to their protestant brethren. Not only should one consider the acts of the priests, but also the bishops who knowningly shuffled them around...
Grab a stupid proposition, and reach for a predetermined "conclusion." You get lamer as time goes on. How about an installment on intellectual dishonesty?
ex-christian at 9:28AM on Aug 24th 2008
14.
Are naturalized pseudo-intellectual Americans dumber than born American pseudo-intellectuals? Consider the Michael Savage-Rush Limbaugh success stories with those of Dinesh D'Souza and Christopher Hitchens. The American born have syndicated radio programs along with writing books for stupid people, where the naturalized pseudo-intellectuals have to squeek by on badly written books and internet controversies....
ex-christian at 9:47AM on Aug 24th 2008
15. One final thought(love today's topic)
Men and women see things differently.Perhaps what is needed is a neutral arbiter of intelligence between men and women.Until then,the debate rages.
P.S.-Chess is not a way of assesing intelligence.And there are many tough female chessperts.
mad african christian at 9:54AM on Aug 24th 2008