The Extremes of Intelligence

I came across this story some time ago and it stuck but I have to say the title is really misleading in several respects.

Men are smarter (and more stupid) than women, say scientists.

But the article doesn’t really say that. It does not show that men have higher IQ’s nor lower IQ’s.

When scientists measured the intelligence of more than 2,500 brothers and sisters, they found a disproportionate number of men in both the top 2 percent and the bottom 2 percent.

There were twice as many men as women in the smartest group. But there were also twice as many men among the dunces

Putting that to the numbers, it means if you picked the three smartest people out of a group of 300 there would be two men and one woman. On the opposite end there would be two men and one woman that would qualify as the dumbest. The difference between the three on each end is immeasurable.
It means the men have a tendency, with a 2:1 ratio, to be on the extremes of intelligence. In other word men have a greater chance of being genius or imbeciles and women have a greater chance of being average.

Of course this study ignores a potentially important concept.

Being a successful person does not entail having only a successful career, or having lots of money, or simply possessing a high intellectual/academic intelligence (IQ). In fact, as data from more developed countries shows, only 20% of a person's success in life is attributed to IQ, leaving 80% to other factors -- especially to his/her emotional
intelligence.