Science

TexasTowelie

(112,387 posts) Sat Jun 27, 2015, 05:38 AM Jun 2015

Men think they are math experts, therefore they are

Just because more men pursue careers in science and engineering does not mean they are actually better at math than women are. The difference is that men think they are much better at math than they really are. Women, on the other hand, tend to accurately estimate their arithmetic prowess, says Shane Bench of Washington State University in the U.S., leader of a study in Springer’s journal Sex Roles.

There is a sizeable gap between the number of men and women who choose to study and follow careers in the so-called STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics in the U.S. This is true even though women outperform their male counterparts on mathematical tests in elementary school. Bench’s study examined how people’s biases and previous experiences about their mathematical abilities make them more or less likely to consider pursuing math-related courses and careers.

Two studies were conducted, one using 122 undergraduate students and the other 184 participants. Each group first completed a math test before guessing how well they had fared at providing the right answers. In the first study, participants received feedback about their real test scores before they were again asked to take a test and predict their scores. In the second study, participants only wrote one test without receiving any feedback. They were, however, asked to report on their intent to pursue math-related courses and careers.

Across the two studies it was found that men overestimated the number of problems they solved, while women quite accurately reported how well they fared. After the participants in Study 1 received feedback about their real test scores, the men were more accurate at estimating how well they had done on the second test. The results of Study 2 show that because the male participants believed they had a greater knack for maths than was the case, they were more likely to pursue maths courses and careers than women.

Read more: http://www.psypost.org/2015/06/men-think-they-are-math-experts-therefore-they-are-35310

5 replies

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Men think they are math experts, therefore they are (Original Post) TexasTowelie Jun 2015 OP

"We are who we pretend to be," wrote Vonnegut . . . Journeyman Jun 2015 #1

Interesting article Gothmog Jun 2015 #2

On the one hand, rogerashton Jun 2015 #3

we all lie to oursevles a little bit qazplm Jun 2015 #4

This "overconfidence" is why we will never solve the current environmental crisis. hunter Jun 2015 #5

Journeyman

(15,038 posts)

1. "We are who we pretend to be," wrote Vonnegut . . .

Reply to TexasTowelie (Original post)

Sat Jun 27, 2015, 05:40 AM

Jun 2015

Gothmog

(145,496 posts)

2. Interesting article

Reply to TexasTowelie (Original post)

Sat Jun 27, 2015, 06:31 AM

Jun 2015

rogerashton

(3,920 posts)

3. On the one hand,

Reply to TexasTowelie (Original post)

Sat Jun 27, 2015, 07:28 AM

Jun 2015

confidence is an important dimension of knowledge. Some of my quizzes have correct answers that conflict with common intuition -- the purpose being to challenge the student to rely on knowledge rather than (naive) intuition.

On the other hand, one of the most common sources of failure is "anchoring," that is, guessing an answer and then finding some math or reasoning that seems to support it. Anchoring could be a symptom of overconfidence, but my experience suggests the contrary.

What the experiment suggests to me is that anchoring is more common among males. (That has not been my experience -- women often seem to be more likely to be among both the most and least successful in my problem-oriented courses -- but I'm a sample of one.)

I read somewhere years ago -- sorry, no link -- that overconfidence is normal among healthy human beings, and the only ones that accurately estimate their capabilities are the clinically depressed. Anyway, what we seem to need is a pedagogy that allows women to gain confidence in the knowledge they have, so they have good reason to put it to work. I wish I knew how to do that better. Some success, I think, but ....

qazplm

(3,626 posts)

4. we all lie to oursevles a little bit

Reply to rogerashton (Reply #3)

Sat Jun 27, 2015, 11:25 AM

Jun 2015

if we are healthy human beings.

If we all 100 percent objectively analyzed ourselves in all of flawed whole, we'd would be depressed!

Over-estimating ones abilities by a small amount I think is a good thing.

hunter

(38,325 posts)

5. This "overconfidence" is why we will never solve the current environmental crisis.

Reply to rogerashton (Reply #3)

Sat Jun 27, 2015, 12:57 PM

Jun 2015

Too many of us don't believe there's a problem until it's killing us, and then there's another batch of us who think some magic new technology will come along (solar, wind, fusion, whatever...) and "save" us.

But the only way to back out of this mess is negative population growth and negative economic growth.

That goes against human nature.

We can accomplish negative population growth and negative economic growth on our own terms, in ways that actually improve the quality of our lives, or we can do nothing and let mother nature put an end to exponential growth as she usually does, in her own grim and violent ways.

What we call "economic productivity" today is a direct measure of the damage we do to the natural environment and our own human spirit.

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