Sex Differences in General Knowledge:

>[Recent] evidence suggests that boys and men tend to have more general knowledge than girls and women do. Analyzing data from six large samples used to create norms for the Wechsler Intelligence Test, Norther Ireland psychologists Richard Lynn, Paul Irwing, and Thomas Cammock (2001) found that men consistently score higher than women on the Wechsler information subtest (mean, d = 0,36). They also developed a 182-item test of general knowledge, and when they gave their test to a group of northern Ireland college students, they found that men generally possessed more knowledge than women did (overall, d = 0,51; which implies that 69% of men had more general knowledge than the average woman did). For some knowledge domains the male advantage was quite large: d = 0,82 for current affairs knowledge (which comprised knowledge of politics, finance, history, and geography), d = 0,75 for knowledge of physical health and recreation (biology, games, and sports), and d = 0,58 for science knowledge (general science and history of science). Two knowledge domains that showed a female advantage were medicine (d = 0,32) and food and cooking (d = 0,48).

Similar findings come from a study by Philip Ackerman, Kristy Bowen, Margaret Beier, and Ruth Kanfer (2001), which assessed various kinds of knowledge in more than 300 students at selective Georgia universities. Men showed higher overall knowledge than women did (d = 0,68). Ackerman and his colleagues also found significant sex differences in subdomains of knowledge. For excample, men exceeded in their knowledge of technology (d = 1,04), electronics (d = 0,98), physics (d= 0,72), geography (d = 0,66), and history (d = 0,56). Knowledge domains showing no significant sex differences included literature, business, art, and psychology. In this study no knowledge domains showed a female advantage. Other recent studies pointed to cross-cultural consistency in sex differences in knowledge. For excamle Evans, Schweingruber, and Stevenson (2002) found that boys possessed moderately higher general knowledge than girls in samples of 11th grade students in the United States, Taiwan, and Japan; Lynn, Wilberg, and Margraf-Stiksrud (in press) reported similar findings among German high school students.<

Richard A. Lippa; Gender, Nature, and Nurture; 2005

[Ergänzend hierzu finden sich auf Alles Evolution folgende Überlegungen: >Wenn Männer zum Buch greifen, lesen sie überwiegend Sachbücher. Romane sind für sie meist nur interessant, wenn sie einen politischen, wirtschaftlichen oder geschichtlichen Hintergrund liefern. Christiane Barthel, Buchhändlerin in Idstein/Hessen, berichtet von ihren Kunden: “Hauptsächlich Bücher, mit denen man noch etwas lernt oder die zumindest spannend sind, wecken bei Männern Interesse.” Wenn Frauen hingegen Sachbücher lesen, so die Expertin, seien es oft die Bereiche Psychologie, Erziehung und Wellness. Grundsätzlich aber lesen Frauen mehr Schöngeistiges. Romane werden überwiegend von Frauen gelesen. Der britische Schriftsteller Ian McEwan zieht in der FAZ sogar das drastische Fazit: “Wenn Frauen nicht mehr lesen, ist der Roman tot.” Da könnte er durchaus gar nicht so falsch liegen.<]

[Nachträgliche Anmerkung zur Anmerkung -: Folgende Studie von Lynn und Irwing (2002- Sex differences in general knowledge, semantic memory and reasoning ability) scheint die Annahme zu widerlegen, dass jener Geschlechtsunterschied im Allgemeinwissen in unterschiedlichen Leseerfahrungen fußt: "The results are interpreted that sex differences in general knowledge cannot be explained as a function of differences in either Gf or experience. It is proposed further that general knowledge should be regarded as a new second-oder factor and designated as semantic memory."]