Gender Myths: Let Science Decide

Sept. 28, 2006 — -- People joke about the differences between men and women: Men don't listen. Women can't read maps. Men snore more. Women are less likely to have affairs.

But are men and women really different or are those statements myths?

It turns out that science says men and women are different.

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At the University of Rochester, students were blindfolded and then led through a maze of tunnels that run underneath the campus.

The experimenter stayed behind them and guided them with a tap on the shoulder so they wouldn't run into anyone.

When the women were asked where a college building was, they rarely knew.

Men, however, have a better sense of spatial relations, according to the experiment. Most knew roughly where they were.

In contrast, at York University in Toronto, students were asked to wait in a cluttered room. After two minutes, the experimenter moved them to another room and asked the students to tell him every object in the room that they could remember.

Women typically gave incredibly detailed answers.

The men were more likely to say, "I dunno. There was some stuff there."

Many women went on and on.

Why are there differences like that or more men at the top levels of science?