Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by stefantalpalaru 3895 days ago
Beautiful example of politics driving research. They only studied something they knew was a disadvantage for males, while the first thing everybody is curious about is how the IQ changed, if it changed: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/education/higher/dr-paul-i...
2 comments

IIRC the higher variance in male IQ is hypothesised to be the result of men having only one X chromosome. I'd expect the null to hold in this case.

As @chroma pointed out, it would have been interesting to see if the mental rotation ability was improved, or if it is dependent on testosterone exposition during development.

It's a little weird to say males have higher IQ on average.

As I understand it (I'm not an IQ expert, just some internet know-it-all), women score better on some categories of questions, as do men, so when you put together a test, you try to make sure it balances out so both get the same average.

AFAIK the average is the same, but males have a higher variance, meaning that they are more likely to be found at the dumber and smarter ends of the population, while there are more women of average intelligence.
Wow, this is new to me... Please note, however, that this is an indirect measurement.
So reality is weird, but manipulating tests to ensure certain results is perfectly fine?
You seem argumentative.
In what brave new world is this a bad thing?