Lifestyle
It turns out that some stereotypes are actually true, at least according to one study.
When it comes to navigation, men are better at finding their way than women, but that has nothing to do with any biological advantage, a new study finds.
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have discovered that the strength of an individual’s wayfinding abilities simply depends on his or her upbringing.
Society encourages boys to play outside more often than girls, allowing boys to develop navigation skills from an early age.
“Sex differences in behavior and performance may arise from biological or cultural processes that have little to do with evolution,” the researchers said in a paper published Wednesday. Royal Society.
The study compared the wayfinding abilities of males and females of 21 very different species, including otters, frogs, horses, and, of course, humans.
Human participants were tested through virtual reality or by navigating a real-world city with only a map in hand or using verbal instructions.
Women tended to travel farther from home, but encountered far more problems than men.
“Men outperform women by varying degrees of statistical significance on many spatial tasks, with meta-analytic effect sizes of small to medium for tasks directly related to navigation.” says the study.
The results were consistent across a large sample size of people on teams who came from different economic classes, cultures, races, etc.
This conclusion overturns a previous misconception that men evolved with stronger spatial abilities.
Researchers previously thought that men’s seafaring abilities grew from their ancestral history as hunters, while women stayed closer to home as gatherers.
This idea was disproved by a small study conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2013, but it did not answer why men and women differ in spatial awareness. .
The researchers said, “We believe that future research on human sex differences in navigation should focus on the role of socialization and culture rather than evolutionary genetic factors.”
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