"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."

So then, the large amount of men at the bottom of the curve reflects the desire of men to act cool and stupid in order to attract girls?

It is truly astonishing the lengths some people will go in order to try to explain away sex differences--and racial ones. The finding that men dominate both ends of the intelligence curve is uncontroversial and has been known for years.

What we have here is another study trying to subtly introduce into the public consciousness information that an egalitarian mentality must swallow only in very small doses lest it become so sick that it vomit the information back at its dispenser with cries of 'sexism!'--that supposedly Victorian poison of the social body.

Douglas, San Diego, San Diego

Interesting and valid comments that seem to be summed up in the question raised by Connie of Montreal. I cannot improve on it!
However, I would like to add that the issue addressed here is extremely important in human evolution and I hope that researchers do intensify their exploration of this complex facet of human nature. Not so much to find a reasonable answer, but rather to help society expose both genders to the same environments, the same experiences, and the same expectations. It is only then that the full potential of humanity is maximised and, as a bi-product, an unbiased IQ test may be developed.
Monji Mouelhi (male), Ottawa, Canada.

Monji Mouelhi, Ottawa, Canada

Perhaps, for early humans, it had survival value for as many women as possible to breed, but it wasn't necessary for all the men to breed; the most successful men could partner more than one woman, as often happens today in practice, while other men could 'fall by the wayside'. On the other hand, it was of benefit to have some 'extreme' people who might invent new things, ensure survival in the toughest times etc. Evolution would tend to make men more 'extreme' (both better and worse) and women less so.

Frank Upton, Solihull,

Interesting and valid comments that seem to be summed up in the question raised by Connie of Montreal. I cannot improve on it!
However, I would like to add that the issue addressed here is extremely important in human evolution and I hope that researchers do intensify their exploration of this complex facet of human nature. Not so much to find a reasonable answer, but rather to help society expose both genders to the same environments, the same experiences, and the same expectations. It is only then that the full potential of humanity is maximised and, as a bi-product, an unbiased IQ test may be developed.

Monji Mouelhi, Ottawa, Canada

Who is deciding what criteria is used to measure IQs?

Connie, Montreal,

I belive women are much smarter than man. Its like men are stronger than women (there are women stronger than men but genitics" and women is smarter than men

sara, yellow, USA

Totally agree, I heard about this years ago. Writer trying to makes headlines by suggesting it was new. It's been newly confirmed in a recent study. But people like what is new and only read that.

Andrew Norris, Warrington, UK

Hmmmm, stop writing rubbish! Smart = well dressed, clean and tidy; dumb = unable to speak.

Mike, Lancaster, UK

This is nothing really new. It has been known for years that
whilst on average the I.Q. of male and female is the same the
male standard deviation about the mean is much greater that
of females.

Denver Watt, Osaka,

Women? Oh, those chaps!

Henry Adams, Manchester, UK,

im only 12 and top set for everything and in maths im in express and i've been doing alot of A level work . and im a boy therers 14 of us and only 4 of them are girls.

jordan, bolton, england

At the risk of being pedantic, it's really not correct to say that men "cluster" at either end. The fact is, both men and women cluster *in the middle*; or, more technically, around the median. Those at the high and low ends of the scale are outliers. The study is suggesting that women cluster more closely around the median than men.

Michael, Texas, USA

In (UK) Police Driving Schools the final exam/test was marked in a percentage.
It used to be the case (at least in the 80's and 90's) that in any intake, the highest marks were always gained by women police drivers. But unfortunately, the same was also true about the lowest marks.

Thus in terms of driving skills, women comprise both the best and worst drivers. Male drivers had a narrower range of abilities.

Brian Vallance, LEFKIMMI, Hellas

This has been a basic in the stats textbooks for years. Men differ from each other more than women: thy populate the extremes of the bell curve more than women. This is why extreme successes and extreme failures tend to be male, and it's also the reason why the "glass ceiling" holding women back is a myth. Just as there's no glass ceiling keeping women from the top positions, there's no glass floor preventing them from being among the greatest failures.

John Ledbury, Kings Lynn, England