Women remember more faces than men do

Women remember more faces than men do
Jenny Rehnman Agneta Herlitz
Acta Psychologica (March 2007)


Abstract

Women have been found to outperform men on face recognition tasks, specifically in the recognition of female faces. Men do not seem to exhibit a corresponding own-sex bias. To examine the generality and possible reasons for these patterns, 107 men and 112 women viewed faces of both children and adults of either Swedish or Bangladeshi origin, for later recognition. As expected, women were especially good at remembering female faces, but also outperformed men on male faces. Men did not show an own-sex bias. Thus, regardless of age and ethnicity of the faces, women performed at a higher level than men on both female and male faces, possibly reflecting enhanced interest in faces, and in particular, female faces.

Eyes and IQ: A meta-analysis of the relationship between intelligence and “Reading the Mind in the Eyes”

Eyes and IQ: A meta-analysis of the relationship between intelligence and “Reading the Mind in the Eyes”
Crystal A. Baker, Eric Peterson, Steven Pulos, Rena A. Kirkland
Intelligence (May-June 2014)



Highlights

o Meta-analysis finds relationship between RMET performance and intelligence.

o Contrary to previous assumptions, RMET performance is influenced by intelligence.

o It is important to control for intelligence when using the RMET.

o Verbal and performance IQ contribute equally to RMET performance.

Abstract

Although the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test (RMET; Baron-Cohen et al. 1997, 2001) has been used as a measure of mental state understanding in over 250 studies, the extent to which it correlates with intelligence is seldom considered. We conducted a meta-analysis to investigate whether or not a relationship exists between intelligence and performance on the RMET. The analysis of 77 effects sizes with 3583 participants revealed a small positive correlation (r = .24) with no difference between verbal and performance abilities. We conclude that intelligence does play a significant role in performance on the RMET and that verbal and performance abilities contribute to this relationship equally. We discuss these findings in the context of the theory of mind and domain-general resources literature.

[Thanks @ Andrew S.]

Sex Differences in Reading Facial Expressions

>Men's sensitivity to negative cues signaled by other men, such as an angry facial expression, is an intriguing exception to women's overall advantage in reading nonverbal cues; men are more sensitive to these cues than to the same ones signaled by women (N. G. Rotter & Rotter, 1988; Wagner et al., 1993; M. A. Williams & Mattingley, 2006). In two large-scale studies involving more than 1,100 people, N. G. Rotter and Rotter found that women are more accurate than men in judging disgust, fear, or sadness in the facial expressions of other women and of men. Women are also more accurate than men in detecting an angry expression on the face of other women. Men, in contrast, are more accurate in detecting an angry expression on the face of other men (N. G. Rotter & Rotter, 1988). Dimberg and Öhman (1996) concluded that men are more sensitive to the angry expressions of other men than they are to the angry expressions of women, especially when these anger-signaling cues are expressed in adult men as contrasted with adolescents and when the expressions are directed toward the individual (e.g. with eye contact). Women, in contrast, appear to be equally senstive to angry expressions in men and other women. At the same time, men are less accurate in detecting disgust, fear, and sadness in other men's facial expressions than in detecting these cues in women's facial expressions.<

Male, Female - The Evolution of Human Sex Differences

David C. Geary (2010)

Sex Differences in Psychological Abilities / Sex Differences in Emotion Judgments:

>Girls and women were more accurate than boys and men when judging emotion cues on the basis of facial expressions, body posture, and vocal intonation (Rosenthal et al., 1979); These sex differences were found in all nations in which three or more samples were obtained - Australia, Canada, the United States, Israel and New Guinea - and were of the same general magnitude in all of these nations (J.A. Hall, 1984). J.A. Hall concluded that the advantage of girls and women in the decoding of nonverbal messages "is most pronounced for facial cues, less pronounced for body cues, and least pronounced for vocal cues". When all nonverbal cues were provided - offering a more accurate assessment of nonverbal decoding skills in the real world - about 17 out of 20 girls and women were more accurate at decoding the emotion cues of another individual than was the average same-age boy or man (J.A. Hall, 1978).< [This is roughly the effect size of the sex difference on the people-things dimension.]

David C. Geary; Male, Female - The Evolution of Human Sex Differences; 2010

Sex Differences in Psychological Abilities:

We know that, on average, women can do a better job than men can of initially figuring out what their social targets might be feeling, what they might be like in terms of personality traits, and how they might be inclined to behave (Ambady et al., 1995; Driscoll et al., 1998; Hall, 1984; Rosenthal et al., 1979).

T. G. Horgan et al., Gender Differences in Memory for the Appearance of Others, 2004

Women & Relationships:

>The result is fairly clear that women more than men are relationship specialists. Women's interpersonal sensivity has been examined by looking at the ability to read non-verbal information from other's behaviour such as posture, vocal inflection and facial expression. Many studies have examined sex differences in accuracy and the result clearly favour women (Hall 1984; Hall et al. 2000). This difference in the accuracy of facial expression processing is allready apparent in infacy (McClure 2000). As well as decoding emotion, women seem to be more effective senders of signals that foster intimacy and closeness. They demonstrate greater involvement in the conversation and a greater interest in tracking the state of the other person's mind than do men by smiling more, gazing more, displaying greater facial expressiveness, reflecting their own emotional state more clearly in their facial expression, using more hand gestures and approaching others more closely. In short women seem keen to establish a mutuality in their conversation by engaging and monitoring their partner's state of mind.<

Anne Campbell, A mind of her own - The evolutionary psychology of women, 2002
[Neuauflage bereits in Planung]