Psychologists have found a justification for the male strangehold on Nobel prizes – there are twice as many men as women in the brightest 2% of the population.

But although men may win the top prizes, they cannot claim a clear-cut victory in an intellectual battle of the sexes. The study shows that men also cluster at the opposite extreme, with twice as many men as women stuck in the least intelligent 2%.

Seeking to compare inherent male and female intelligence has proved perilous for academics – last year Lawrence Summers, the president of Harvard, lost his job after he suggested women might not scale the same intellectual heights as men.

Comparisons have been flawed because of the difficulty of accounting for unequal opportunities. But the new findings, in research by four British-based psychologists – all men – claim to untangle the effects of family background.

They analysed the intelligence of more than 2,500 brothers and sisters, measured by tests in science, maths, English and mechanical ability. Women scored significantly higher on language skills; men won on science and arithmetic.

There was no significant difference in the average intelligence of men and women, when all the test results were taken together. However, the analysis showed that men were far more likely to be be found at extremes of the intelligence scale. At the time of the study, men had been awarded 545 out of the 557 Nobel prizes for science.

However, individuals often defy the patterns. Carol Vorderman, the broadcaster – who has a reported IQ of more than 150 – has made a career out of her mathematical skills.

Scientific achievement runs in the Vorderman family, as she reveals on BBC1’s Who Do You Think You Are? this week. Her great-grandfather, Adolphe, helped on work that led to a fellow Dutch scientist winning a Nobel prize for discovering vitamins.

Timothy Bates, a professor of psychology at Edinburgh University, one of the study’s authors, said: “Men were more likely to be both at the very top and at the very bottom.”

One theory holds that men seek to boost their intelligence, to make themselves more attractive to females, while women’s chances of reproducing depend less on their perceived intelligence.

“The female developmental programme may be tilted more towards ensuring survival and [enjoying] the safety of the middle ground,” said Bates.

Experts said the research could not eliminate the fact that, even within a family, boys and girls would be given a different upbringing. Joan Harvey of Newcastle University said: “Men and boys are socialised into higher levels of achievement.”

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