Comments on: A dose of female intelligence

By: Gina

Gina — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 23:22:17 +0000

Working until retirement takes 40+ years.

Raising a baby takes 6 years.

When dividing up responsibilities, guess which one we chose?

By: neurohax

neurohax — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 19:49:30 +0000

Yes but I would like to see the results of adding the number of PEOPLE in a group and see if it causes an increase in group intelligence, regardless of gender. It would seem that on average more brains, more perspectives, would add to the intelligence. Maybe its not gender but different perspectives, different areas of knowledge of certain people are what adds to a group’s intelligence.

By: Andrya

Andrya — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 06:21:00 +0000

Stick around for a few years. It wasn’t until less than 50 years ago that major educational institutions in the United States even began accepting women into their programs. If you were going to hire someone to build a bridge would you tend to chose one with several years of educational experience, or one without? In 2008 Harvard accepted more women then men. Now that the playing field is beginning to level out I think you will be in for a big surprise.

By: mchankins

mchankins — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 21:22:13 +0000

“Finally, c was positively and significantly
correlated with the proportion of females in the
group (r = 0.23, P = 0.007)”

So the proportion of females in the group accounted for just 5% of the variation in ‘collective intelligence’?

By: JohnC

JohnC — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 01:18:48 +0000

Have the naysayers actually read TFA?

It was about Collective Intelligence of Groups, not achievements of individuals.

In fact a major result is the collective intelligence of a group is not well predicted by the intelligence of the individuals!

“Finally, c was positively and significantly
correlated with the proportion of females in the
group (r = 0.23, P = 0.007). However, this result appears to be largely mediated by social sensitivity (Sobel z = 1.93, P = 0.03), because (consistent with previous research) women in our sample scored better on the social sensitivity measure than men [t(441) = 3.42, P = 0.001].”

By: Dave Lewis

Dave Lewis — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 00:15:08 +0000

Sometimes mixed company makes for more polite interaction, which can be a big help.

By: Lorinne

Lorinne — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 00:10:54 +0000

So the biggest factors for whether or not you will die while in Grand Canyon National Park are; being male, in a group of males, no females present, between the ages of 16 and 35. (Taken from the book, Death in the Grand Canyon.) Men aren’t more stupid, they are more willing to take stupid risks in order to be on top of the pecking order. If they pick a field of study, this can be useful. If they’re just out in a field, that can get ugly.
Women are more likely to get consensus, men are more likely to get credit. I am absolutely sure that every “single” man who got that Nobel or built that bridge had a team around him. I’m also sure that the team was largely female.

By: pinboard June 26, 2011 — arghh.net

pinboard June 26, 2011 — arghh.net — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 17:37:15 +0000

[...] A dose of female intelligence « Mind Hacks [...]

By: mick grierson

mick grierson — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 13:38:50 +0000

I don’t think this is relevant to the study but feel I must respond to this troll.

“I don’t know of any MAJOR invention made by women.”

Check these electronic musical instrument patents on ubuweb.

http://www.ubu.com/emr/patents/01individuals/oram.html

Notice they are attributed to Daphne Oram, UK Electronic Music pioneer, who died in poverty with her legacy obscured. Notice in particular her 1967 US patent for digitally controlled waveform oscillators, the basis of the most common industrially deployed electronic music technology.

Various anecdotal accounts ‘reveal’ she was slightly crazy / hysterical / plagiarised the work / was difficult to work with etc. etc. bla. Stuff you might culturally associate with male genius.

By: Emmy

Emmy — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 02:15:17 +0000

Imnotbody, first of all, the Nobel Prize does not define who is a genius and who is not.
These days, of the 77 new doctors to graduate from Tufts Veterinary School in 2001, 63 of them were women. They now make up the majority of vets (which is tougher than becoming an M.D – can you guess why?) I’m surprised your genius of choice is the guy who invented Facebook…. as opposed to, say, Lynn Margulis who established the theory of eukaryotic organelles?

Plus which, you seemed to miss the entire point of the post, which is about what factors can make teams more successful. And since you like Google so much, type in this name: Elinor Ostrom.