The stereotype that men are better than women at reading maps is true, a brain expert has claimed, but only because they played with Lego as children.
Professor of cognitive neuroimaging at the Aston Brain Centre Gina Rippon told Hay Festival that playing with Lego or video games means boys learn to think in a different way than girls, who are more likely to be given dolls to play with.
She said it is a myth that men’s and women’s brains are inherently different and many contrasts are due to the different experiences of growing up rather than gender.
She added that while there are biological differences between men’s and women’s brains, there are many variances that can also be put down to “gendered expectations and gendered experiences”.
Professor Rippon told the Hay Festival: ‘The issue of map-reading, which is kind of a manifestation of a spatial skill, is actually supposedly one area where there’s a really robust difference.
“It does appear that on average men do have some better ability at spatial skills. But if you then track back their experience they’ve had with Lego and video games, it’s much higher in boys and they’re much more encouraged with construction toys, for example.
“So it’s difficult to know if the adult difference is really a manifestation of perhaps a tiny biological difference at the beginning which has been magnified by a whole range of different experiences.”
A study last year found women in countries such as the UK, Australia and the US, where greater strides had been made towards equality in the workplace, were better at navigating than those from countries were the gender gap is wider.
