Sunday, January 06, 2013

Larry Summers Could be Fired Just for READING This!


Studying Intellectual Outliers: Are There Sex Differences, and Are the Smart Getting Smarter?

Jonathan Wai, Martha Putallaz & Matthew Makel
Current Directions in Psychological Science, December 2012, Pages 382-390

Abstract:
By studying samples of intellectual outliers across 30 years, researchers can leverage right-tail data (i.e., samples at or above the 95th percentile on tests of ability) to uncover missing pieces to two psychological puzzles: whether there are sex differences in cognitive abilities among smart people, and whether test scores are rising (a phenomenon known as the Flynn effect) among smart people. For the first puzzle, data indicate that the high male-to-female ratio among extremely high scorers on measures of math ability has decreased dramatically, but is still likely one factor among many explaining female underrepresentation in some professions. For the second puzzle, data indicate that the right tail has risen at a similar rate as the general (or middle portion of the) distribution; it is thus likely that the entire curve is rising at a relatively constant rate, consistent with the Flynn effect, which may explain why a greater number of gifted students have been identified in recent years. However, the causes for these gains and whether they reflect real gains in intelligence continue to remain a mystery. We show how these two puzzles are linked and stress the importance of paying attention to the entire distribution when attempting to address some scientific questions.


Several interesting things here.
1.  Jonathan Wai is from Duke's TIP program.  The EYM profited from that program, in my opinion.
2.  "Searching for the Right Tail" sounds like a book about singles bars.  Sequel to "Looking for Mr. Goodbar."  But from the male perspective.
3.   Instead of studying intellectual outliers, how about studying intellectual out-and-out liars, like P-Kroog?  I bet those are FAR more likely to be men.  Women have scruples.

2 comments:

Tom said...

"Women have scruples"?

Madeleine Albright?
Hilary Clinton?
Dianne Feinstein?

Perhaps there are fewer women who are abusive, out-and-out liars in power, because there are fewer women in power?

Studying the outliers seems limited. Surely the cultural constraints on women inhibit the top third from focusing on careers, so that they could become outliers. Also, I don't know of any culture without a multi-millennial history of constraints one women.

Dino Spumoni said...

Without contradicting first(!) commenter Tom's observation, I believe the accepted usage, as per Johnny Hart's old "B.C." strip, is "Women **got** scruples."