Population sex differences in IQ at age 11: the Scottish mental survey 1932 |
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| Authors: | Ian J. Deary Graham Thorpe Valerie Wilson John M. Starr Lawrence J. Whalley |
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| Affiliation: | a Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh, 7 George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9JZ, Scotland, UK;b Scottish Council for Research in Education, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK;c Department of Geriatric Medicine, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK;d Department of Mental Health, University of Aberdeen, Scotland, Aberdeen, Scotland, UK |
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| Abstract: | There is uncertainty whether the sexes differ with respect to their mean levels and variabilities in mental ability test scores. Here we describe the cognitive ability distribution in 80,000+ children—almost everyone born in Scotland in 1921—tested at age 11 in 1932. There were no significant mean differences in cognitive test scores between boys and girls, but there was a highly significant difference in their standard deviations (P<.001). Boys were over-represented at the low and high extremes of cognitive ability. These findings, the first to be presented from a whole population, might in part explain such cognitive outcomes as the slight excess of men achieving first class university degrees, and the excess of males with learning difficulties. |
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| Keywords: | Population sex differences Scottish mental survey Mental ability |
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